Hell offices now.

[stevejm]

For the shared vans which make up a large percentage of the jobs now I genuinely think Dave and Martin have agreed something worse than the ODM with this DM26 nonsense. Yes the pair in the shared vans would be doing double mail all the time on the full delivery but at least you would only be covering the area of two deliveries. This DM26 shite means your still doing double mail on half a van share anyway then your faffing about with 2 thirds of other areas in which again some of it is double mail. You’re covering a huge area with all the small tracked and first class and you are also ramming the van with the extra large parcels from this area.
Looking at the bollocks longer attendance hours under DM26 i honestly believe it would have been easier on the longer shift patterns to just do the original ODM model. Let’s be real double mail isn’t actually THAT bad most the time compared to covering extra areas with the mountain of tracked shite we receive daily.
Martin and Dave in there genius gave us a worse version of 3 coving 4 jobs than was originally planned.

Correct. Most posties on here don't consider the cumulative damage they are doing to their joints every single month/year. And if you are under 40 why would you? You have energy to burn and maybe a few niggles but nothing that can't be fixed with popping ibuprofen now and again.
But walking 30/40% further in a year/5 years/ten years will accelerate whatever you have coming down the pipeline.
But consider this .... do you think Kretinsky, Walsh and Ward lose any sleep over long term damage to our health?

[Gary55]

Probably factored a lot of legacy leaving as part of their profit projections

[A2B]

Probably factored a lot of legacy leaving as part of their profit projections

I do wonder how many people retire from RM per month, guessing well over a 100

[yellowbelly]

Probably factored a lot of legacy leaving as part of their profit projections

I do wonder how many people retire from RM per month, guessing well over a 100

Read somewhere (think it was in an annual report) that 10,000 leave every year, whether that's to retire
or sack it off for something better I don't know.

[A2B]

Read somewhere (think it was in an annual report) that 10,000 leave every year, whether that's to retire
or sack it off for something better I don't know.

Yes I think I remember reading that but I'd be interested to know how many who have put say 20+ years into the company retire per month.

I know in my office there's more gone in the last couple of years than in the previous 10 but they were all of a similar age

[norris9]

If it's true that 50% of new contracted staff aren't in the CWU, then I'd assume the main reason is because a lot of them don't plan on staying long term, so don't need the 'safety net' of being in the union.

As for DM26 and whether Royal Mail are trying to make our lives difficult.... I'll reserve judgement until the 3rd week of working under DM26.... as of now I haven't even started DM26, so can't comment.

[1988]

What system do you propose, bear in mind the new Off com regulations and rules we work under now. Any plan has to involve double mail
because duties were always going to be alternated. What did you want the Union to do for you?

I'm just interested because everyone seems to be critical of the union but nobody proposes solutions or has any ideas.

Its easy to destroy something, be critical and dismissive. Its more difficult to analyse the situation and have an understanding and possibly come up with ideas.

You shove the pods up the graduates arse. You make each job responsible for 1/3 of a lapsed duty and rotate how you see fit.

I'd like to know what exactly constitutes 1 heavy bag...more graduate nonsense.

[funkflex55]

What system do you propose, bear in mind the new Off com regulations and rules we work under now. Any plan has to involve double mail
because duties were always going to be alternated. What did you want the Union to do for you?

I'm just interested because everyone seems to be critical of the union but nobody proposes solutions or has any ideas.

Its easy to destroy something, be critical and dismissive. Its more difficult to analyse the situation and have an understanding and possibly come up with ideas.

You shove the pods up the graduates arse. You make each job responsible for 1/3 of a lapsed duty and rotate how you see fit.

I'd like to know what exactly constitutes 1 heavy bag...more graduate nonsense.

One heavy bag is 2/3 days mail, all the tracked, parcels and specials for that loop plus a f**k tonne of door 2 doors because you only get 2 or 3 days a week to clear them all for the duty.

[TopperGas]

Re D2D's why can't RM try and control them so we have a similar number each week? Last week I had 5 last week, this week just one slip of paper.

[Pfrizzy10]

If it's true that 50% of new contracted staff aren't in the CWU, then I'd assume the main reason is because a lot of them don't plan on staying long term, so don't need the 'safety net' of being in the union.

As for DM26 and whether Royal Mail are trying to make our lives difficult.... I'll reserve judgement until the 3rd week of working under DM26.... as of now I haven't even started DM26, so can't comment.

The union is pointless. I prefer my £3/4 per week!

As for DM26, it actually hasn’t really made any difference to me. Two row is what I’ve been mainly doing for months and now, that’s all is required. It’s just a longer day in return for more Saturdays, so I prefer it to be honest, so far.

[Mr Rush]

Read somewhere (think it was in an annual report) that 10,000 leave every year, whether that's to retire
or sack it off for something better I don't know.

Yes I think I remember reading that but I'd be interested to know how many who have put say 20+ years into the company retire per month.

I've been trawling through the forum archives for research for a while now so I recognise that number - it's quite old...

RM loses 10,000 staff a year through high turnover, sackings and retirement so i wouldn't panic just yet. Although middle management does need culling, far too heavy.

It slowed down to around 5,000 a year.

About 5,000 people left the company, mainly in the Letters business, bringing the total number to have left the Group since spring 2002 to around 60,000 through voluntary redundancy or natural turnover.

2010/11 (p5, p7): 45,000 FTE left in last decade
2011/12 (p9): 50,000 gone in last decade
2012/13 (p11) 50,000 gone since 2003, 12,000 gone in last four years
2015/16 (p4) 3,500 gone that year

It might well be that it's back up to 10,000 a year again. The heavy churn in the present is new contracts replacing new contracts. Consequently, the average age of operational staff has been creeping up over the years so I would expect retirements general and ill health are up. VRs are probably a rounding error!

I'd like to plot declining pay versus staff turnover in a graph if I had some consistent numbers to work with.

• 2010/11: Average age 44. More than a third with 20 years service. 6% less than 2 years service. Turnover half UK average.
• 2018/19: 47% over age 50. 8% under 30.
• 2023: "more than half [...] over 50"
• 2024: the average tenure for Royal Mail employees at 18 years [...] our turnover of staff is well below the industry average – 11% at Royal Mail compared to 26.9% across the logistics sector.

[tramssirhc]

Read somewhere (think it was in an annual report) that 10,000 leave every year, whether that's to retire
or sack it off for something better I don't know.

Yes I think I remember reading that but I'd be interested to know how many who have put say 20+ years into the company retire per month.

I've been trawling through the forum archives for research for a while now so I recognise that number - it's quite old...

RM loses 10,000 staff a year through high turnover, sackings and retirement so i wouldn't panic just yet. Although middle management does need culling, far too heavy.

It slowed down to around 5,000 a year.

About 5,000 people left the company, mainly in the Letters business, bringing the total number to have left the Group since spring 2002 to around 60,000 through voluntary redundancy or natural turnover.

2010/11 (p5, p7): 45,000 FTE left in last decade
2011/12 (p9): 50,000 gone in last decade
2012/13 (p11) 50,000 gone since 2003, 12,000 gone in last four years
2015/16 (p4) 3,500 gone that year

It might well be that it's back up to 10,000 a year again. The heavy churn in the present is new contracts replacing new contracts. Consequently, the average age of operational staff has been creeping up over the years so I would expect retirements general and ill health are up. VRs are probably a rounding error!

I'd like to plot declining pay versus staff turnover in a graph if I had some consistent numbers to work with.

• 2010/11: Average age 44. More than a third with 20 years service. 6% less than 2 years service. Turnover half UK average.
• 2018/19: 47% over age 50. 8% under 30.
• 2023: "more than half [...] over 50"
• 2024: the average tenure for Royal Mail employees at 18 years [...] our turnover of staff is well below the industry average – 11% at Royal Mail compared to 26.9% across the logistics sector.

Martin Walsh needs this level of dedication. Impressive.

[postslippete]

Impressive post Mr Rush


In 2021/22 the y/e figure was around 157,000 staff employed (not just posties) whereas by 2023/24 it was around 139,000 staff, so RM were actively reducing its labour resource.

https://www.statista.com/topics/9993/ro ... icOverview


And there is also one of the better WSWS better articles which explain in some detail what IDS's objectives were when Keith Williams was chairman.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/0 ... f-m26.html

In fact, the company has already cashed in, with Williams citing last November’s five-point stabilisation plan: “On rightsizing the business, for example, we said we’d target a reduction of 5,000 FTEs by the end of March, and in fact, we delivered around a 10,000 reduction on exit from the year earlier. Revisions have now been completed in all units.”

[toonshola]

Read somewhere (think it was in an annual report) that 10,000 leave every year, whether that's to retire
or sack it off for something better I don't know.

Yes I think I remember reading that but I'd be interested to know how many who have put say 20+ years into the company retire per month.

I've been trawling through the forum archives for research for a while now so I recognise that number - it's quite old...

RM loses 10,000 staff a year through high turnover, sackings and retirement so i wouldn't panic just yet. Although middle management does need culling, far too heavy.

It slowed down to around 5,000 a year.

About 5,000 people left the company, mainly in the Letters business, bringing the total number to have left the Group since spring 2002 to around 60,000 through voluntary redundancy or natural turnover.

2010/11 (p5, p7): 45,000 FTE left in last decade
2011/12 (p9): 50,000 gone in last decade
2012/13 (p11) 50,000 gone since 2003, 12,000 gone in last four years
2015/16 (p4) 3,500 gone that year

It might well be that it's back up to 10,000 a year again. The heavy churn in the present is new contracts replacing new contracts. Consequently, the average age of operational staff has been creeping up over the years so I would expect retirements general and ill health are up. VRs are probably a rounding error!

I'd like to plot declining pay versus staff turnover in a graph if I had some consistent numbers to work with.

• 2010/11: Average age 44. More than a third with 20 years service. 6% less than 2 years service. Turnover half UK average.
• 2018/19: 47% over age 50. 8% under 30.
• 2023: "more than half [...] over 50"
• 2024: the average tenure for Royal Mail employees at 18 years [...] our turnover of staff is well below the industry average – 11% at Royal Mail compared to 26.9% across the logistics sector.

Martin Walsh needs this level of dedication. Impressive.

Oh Walsh can nuckle down with facts and figures when the data benefits the foreign Billionaire who owns RM or when the information can be used in a torrent of cruelty towards his paying members.

[cardinalfang]

This is entirely of the CWU's leadership's making over decades. They ruined the union, not us.

Regardless of who's at fault, the effect is a union membership which is disengaged, indifferent and not very active in the workplace. 50 percent of new entrants aren't in the Union so how do you have a rank and file movement with a workforce that is increasingly rejecting union involvement. The turnout for the last vote was woeful.

Whether the CWU has caused this themselves by neutering the local level or it is simply the capitalist system that rejects community and solidarity which has had a negative cultural effect on people,on workers, I dont know. It could be both.
[/quote]

I agree that it’s not all down to the union but it’s not helping itself at all. There’s no engagement with the members. We had regular you tube videos they have stopped if not many were watching at least the union were trying. The magazine dwindled out other smaller unions produce excellent online magazines that show all aspects of their work for the members. With less engagement it’s only leading to a downward spiral. I actively give up a lot of my spare time for the union in my branch role and am beginning to wonder if it’s worth it.