Mobile Phones. Any rules?

Post by **rambo1** » 01 Sep 2019, 11:36

Cloudwatcher wrote:Thanks everyone. I slept on it and indeed I am perfectly within my rights to not use my personal mobile for work purposes outside of work. To keep it simple I will just drive to my SO, clock on and then they can send me where they wish in work time with their own transport. Its not like I am an agency worker where I need to switch my phone on to get work. I am contracted to work 5:30 hours per day and that's what I will do.

It does seem to me a little worrying that a lot of the other reserves, especially the newbies on probation, seem to accept that being sent to other depots by text after a few weeks of joining is OK. But that doesn't mean that I have to put up with it......

Interesting that I should not be sent to other depots for 26 weeks. Is there any evidence I can share to my manager to back this up. At present I think I will compromise and ignore morning texts but if they ask me in the depot to go somewhere else tomorrow then I will. Probably compromise is best for now.

LTB 496/19 on the union section of this forum. Show your Dom. It clearly states from now, new starters will be kept on the same duty for six weeks and not be traded to other offices in their first 26 weeks. You're right to not want to be bothered by them before work. You start work when you get there and finish when you sign out. Any other contact by manager , other than if you're on sick leave, could and should be classed as unwanted harassment. Stick to your guns mate. ATB.

Post by **97gaz** » 01 Sep 2019, 12:28

DiamondSmiles · Post by **DiamondSmiles** » 01 Sep 2019, 12:44

Never give them your mobile phone number. Simple

Pidleypoo · Post by **Pidleypoo** » 01 Sep 2019, 13:30

Tomolo208 wrote:It depends if you want to make money out of it. I mean we work to make money, getting sent to another office is easy £££.

Get business insurance on your car, costs like £20, then invoice your mileage at around 40p per mile to the firm. Turn up at your office "oops I didn't see your message, sorry" then get paid to drive your car to another office and claim easy overtime.

You're on a 5 and a half hour contract, I've been there and if you need the extra money then this is the way to do it.

You're also covering rounds you don't know so will be expected to book overtime, especially after turning up late factoring in the driving to another office.

Just depends on your circumstances!

Awful advice , ignore this.

yellowbelly · Post by **yellowbelly** » 01 Sep 2019, 14:29

Pidleypoo wrote:
Tomolo208 wrote:It depends if you want to make money out of it. I mean we work to make money, getting sent to another office is easy £££.

Get business insurance on your car, costs like £20, then invoice your mileage at around 40p per mile to the firm. Turn up at your office "oops I didn't see your message, sorry" then get paid to drive your car to another office and claim easy overtime.

You're on a 5 and a half hour contract, I've been there and if you need the extra money then this is the way to do it.

You're also covering rounds you don't know so will be expected to book overtime, especially after turning up late factoring in the driving to another office.

Just depends on your circumstances!
Awful advice , ignore this.

Depends on your circumstances......I was in this position when I started.

IF you're happy to go to another office you can go to your 'normal' unit at your 'normal' start time and if they ask you to go to another DO
then you can either ask for them to provide you transport to get there or use your own vehicle (with the appropriate business insurance) to make
your way there. If you use your own vehicle make sure you claim motor mileage allowance - it's 45p per mile. This is designed to cover
the wear and tear on your vehicle, fuel costs and insurance. The cost of business insurance can vary - mine unbelievably
was an extra 1p when I rang up and the call centre waived it anyway and just updated my policy.

Claim motor mileage allowance regularly (weekly/monthly). As soon as you don't get paid
for it/payment is delayed, or it's 'I'll make sure it's paid next week' then do what I did and advise your manager you don't
want to go as you've not been paid the allowance.

The really BIG proviso to all this is to make sure you've not been recruited as a 'Area cover/reserve' - if you were then
RM can reasonably send you to any local office and you can't refuse - whether they're supposed to supply transport or you're to
make your own way there in this case I'm not sure.

barcajr · Post by **barcajr** » 01 Sep 2019, 14:36

Bit of a grey area insurance wise, if you were to be involved in an accident while driving your own car to or from a different office

yellowbelly · Post by **yellowbelly** » 01 Sep 2019, 14:44

barcajr wrote:Bit of a grey area insurance wise, if you were to be involved in an accident while driving your own car to or from a different office

That's why you make sure you've got business insurance - if you haven't - don't do it.......

Post by **fb1969** » 01 Sep 2019, 15:48

Cloudwatcher wrote:Thanks everyone. I slept on it and indeed I am perfectly within my rights to not use my personal mobile for work purposes outside of work.

You don't have to use it for work purposes while at work. The pda should be programmed with the Office and manager's phone numbers, you can use that to call them and they can use it to call you.

Dindin · Post by **Dindin** » 01 Sep 2019, 16:10

It says on rmtv no phones no exceptions

mailroyaly · Post by **mailroyaly** » 01 Sep 2019, 16:40

My dom's mobile number is on my reject list!!

Rael, the IAK · Post by **Rael, the IAK** » 01 Sep 2019, 17:01

Royal Mail mileage rate for use of your own car is 45p per mile when you go to another DO. So make sure you claim it at the end of each week when you've been to another office. It will then get paid the following Friday or the one after. It's not detailed on your payslip though, just a credit into your account.
If you go direct to another DO from home, you should count your hours from and back to home. Or at least that's what I was told to do and therefore do. No DOM or lino at another DO has objected when I've asked them to book the appropriate overtime for me on that basis. They're usually just grateful that you've turned up and got them out of the poo.

Cloudwatcher · Post by **Cloudwatcher** » 01 Sep 2019, 17:09

rambo1 wrote:
Cloudwatcher wrote:Thanks everyone. I slept on it and indeed I am perfectly within my rights to not use my personal mobile for work purposes outside of work. To keep it simple I will just drive to my SO, clock on and then they can send me where they wish in work time with their own transport. Its not like I am an agency worker where I need to switch my phone on to get work. I am contracted to work 5:30 hours per day and that's what I will do.

It does seem to me a little worrying that a lot of the other reserves, especially the newbies on probation, seem to accept that being sent to other depots by text after a few weeks of joining is OK. But that doesn't mean that I have to put up with it......

Interesting that I should not be sent to other depots for 26 weeks. Is there any evidence I can share to my manager to back this up. At present I think I will compromise and ignore morning texts but if they ask me in the depot to go somewhere else tomorrow then I will. Probably compromise is best for now.
LTB 496/19 on the union section of this forum. Show your Dom. It clearly states from now, new starters will be kept on the same duty for six weeks and not be traded to other offices in their first 26 weeks. You're right to not want to be bothered by them before work. You start work when you get there and finish when you sign out. Any other contact by manager , other than if you're on sick leave, could and should be classed as unwanted harassment. Stick to your guns mate. ATB.

Ta, I have just read that thread. Interesting. I am not sure if I will be able to enforce the 6 months rule as it seems common place for new starters to be pimped off to other depots within a month or so of starting. I will ask my union rep what he thinks about this.

I will definitely ignore any texts from managers outside of work hours from now on though.

robbertwhitton · Post by **robbertwhitton** » 01 Sep 2019, 18:56

What a bloody cheek,treating you like this,typical management,get to your place of work first at your start time then you can have the conversation in your work time,not before,they’re not content to bully and harass you in work time they want to do it in your own time as well,

Post by **aiden01** » 01 Sep 2019, 19:01

robbertwhitton wrote:What a bloody cheek,treating you like this,typical management,get to your place of work first at your start time then you can have the conversation in your work time,not before,they’re not content to bully and harass you in work time they want to do it in your own time as well,

Dindin · Post by **Dindin** » 01 Sep 2019, 20:21

aiden01 wrote:
robbertwhitton wrote:What a bloody cheek,treating you like this,typical management,get to your place of work first at your start time then you can have the conversation in your work time,not before,they’re not content to bully and harass you in work time they want to do it in your own time as well,

It's hard to say what is in a new starters contract