meal break

[fishtank]

Ok fishtank thanks for the reply but heres a few questions on your duty No 1 service of your van 13 to 19 mins allowed drivers manual

First of all don't shoot the messenger but the times pegasus gives for the van checks are 9mins daily....14mins weekly.
The non-driver loads the van while the driver does the check.

No2 your meal break forget about it being 35 your 20 mins in the van canr not count as a break because your not away from yor work place check the link

RM are advising that you CAN have your break in the van...not that you MUST.

No 3 your 10 mins to return to your office park and log your van and bring any items ie wdl and your pda no way

It's 15mins not 10mins

14:45 to 15:00 – Return to office

...i agree it's still not long enough but i didn't make this s**t up RM did.

[oneloveltd]

First of i dont want to shoot the messenger we blow them up in belfast (little joke)
van checks have nothing to do with pegasus there in royal mails driver hand book
first question i would have asked a manger is how do i do a van check safely with someone loading it
when i need to check tyre press oil water fuel and as you know the list is endless

The answer im looking for about the break is 5 hours as per royal mails instruction with health and safty


http://www.direct.gov.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says

The requirements are:

•the break must be in one block

•it cannot be taken off one end of the working day - it must be somewhere in the middle

•you are allowed to spend it away from the place on your employer's premises where you work

•your employer can say when the break must be taken, as long as it meets these conditions

so your 40 min break would be at 12 to 12.40 ,so how many SD`s would fail the 1 oclock

How far are you from your delivery span

[guvenor]

no breaks should be allowed in shared vans for h/s reasons alone.
you dont know what sh** you are walking into the van or your partner .
dirt , grime ,crap you name it it will all be in van .bacteria germs etc list is endless.
it is not a safe enviorment to consume foodstuffs. h/s executive would have a field day not to mention rm with stage warnings when people go off sick.not to mention sick people sharing vans not going off sick and spreading even more
oh joy

[axeman]

no breaks should be allowed in shared vans for h/s reasons alone.
you dont know what sh** you are walking into the van or your partner .
dirt , grime ,crap you name it it will all be in van .bacteria germs etc list is endless.
it is not a safe enviorment to consume foodstuffs. h/s executive would have a field day not to mention rm with stage warnings when people go off sick.not to mention sick people sharing vans not going off sick and spreading even more
oh joy

yes your right but h&s states that your break should be away from your area / place of work me i'll be going back to my office as they 'will' have to allow you to do this and adjust your times to allow you to return the same applies for toilet issues because of the very same h&s rules covering breaks don't let your rep or area rep tell you any different time we hit them with the pitfalls of bullshit managements short sightedness and complacency and complete lack of care

[oneloveltd]

guvenor and axeman great point thanks for the helpful imput

[gb93]

To the 3 posters above raise your points in your revisions.
Then let us all know when you get the time built into your duties to return to office for your break, and how much time you get.
PS What do you do for your breaks now ?

[fishtank]

yes your right but h&s states that your break should be away from your area / place of work me i'll be going back to my office as they 'will' have to allow you to do this and adjust your times to allow you to return the same applies for toilet issues because of the very same h&s rules covering breaks don't let your rep or area rep tell you any different time we hit them with the pitfalls of bullshit managements short sightedness and complacency and complete lack of care

The idea that you are going to demand to take your break away from your place of work by demanding that you return to your office(your place of work) is hilarious.

As far as meal breaks are concerned the agreement states.....

Appropriately scheduled meal breaks ( consistent with relevant working time legislation)

I would suggest that you read up on the relevant working time legislation before you go sounding off to your manager.
What you will find is that the 20mins that you are scheduled to have "in the van or elsewhere" isn't even covered by working time legislation unless it's been 6hrs or more since your last break.

[oneloveltd]

This is why i put the post up to get some answers
fish As for your 318 duty structure well more fool you
For letting your manger away with it, these questions have to be answered and royal mail have a duty of care to its workforce
I have put this question to the excutive to clarify it and await their reply

[belle smith]

I have put this question to the excutive to clarify it and await their reply

Good luck with that.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

As other part-timers in my office, I now start at 0945, due to an implementation of "double prep standards," whereby all we are expected to do when we arrive is collect specials; organise them plus recorded on the signature booklet and then tie-up (they reckon in ~30 minutes).

So why are we being told that we should take half our meal relief within ~30 mins of our start, just before we leave the office?
Do you fellow posties take half of your meal relief within 30 mins of your start?
Do managers do the above?
I suspect not!

The idea of a meal relief is to allow one to recharge after doing some work, hence why employment law dictates that anyone doing a six hour working day or more should take a 20 minute contnuous break in the middle of their working day. Consequently, I do just that, taking most of my first break ~2.5 hours into my working day and the remainder ~75% through my walk. Does this sound reasonable? Surely they cannot give disciplinary action for complying far better with employment law on such matters (this has not happened, I'm just putting the question out there if my lino became aware)?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

As other part-timers in my office, I now start at 0945, due to an implementation of "double prep standards," whereby all we are expected to do when we arrive is collect specials; organise them plus recorded on the signature booklet and then tie-up (they reckon in ~30 minutes).

So why are we being told that we should take half our meal relief within ~30 mins of our start, just before we leave the office?
Do you fellow posties take half of your meal relief within 30 mins of your start?
Do managers do the above?
I suspect not!

The idea of a meal relief is to allow one to recharge after doing some work, hence why employment law dictates that anyone doing a six-hour working day or more should take a 20 minute continuous break in the middle of their working day. Consequently, I do just that, taking most of my first break ~2.5 hours into my working day and the remainder ~75% through my walk. Does this sound reasonable? Surely they cannot give disciplinary action for complying far better with employment law on such matters (this has not happened, I'm just putting the question out there if my lino became aware)?

You may need to check with your Area Rep on this one as I think it may outside the purview of a Unit rep.  The reason being is that according to the DirectGov website you are only entitled to a break if you are expected to work more than 6 hours in a given day.

As you being a waysider only work 4 - 5 hours a day - depending on contract, you are probably not covered by the law, and RM may indeed be allowed to tell you when to take your break even if it breaks the rules regarding being somewhere in the middle of the working day.

[oneloveltd]

The reason your being told is because the delivery wouldn’t work if you took your break in the middle that’s my guess the postman posted what length of break your entitled too on page 1 of this post

This point of a proper Meal Break is a small one but an important one
How many of you have a 318 (duty structure} were it shows you to split your break
Or how many of you have seen a 318 of your duty
as in my office they where taken all for restructuring and never put back
Royal Mail have a duty of care to you do not let them forget it

[kilrenny]

we do not get sequenced mail so it takes a lot longer to prep. we have begun 4 hr walks which are a joke time wise. much longer. so when I said I was taking my break before going out manager said I should have told him at beggining of shift. shared van so it meant I was holding up colleague champing to get out

[beazer]

In our office a new 4 and a half hour delivery walk span is being introduced that does not inclued loading the van and getting there and returning to office and parking and logging vechile ,can anyone tell me how long were allowed to work without a break.where we are intitiled to take our break

The Law states if you work for 6hrs or more you must have a 20min break but it can't be at the start or end of the 6hrs
and it must be away from your work station.

[Himaggen]

I do enjoy looking at peoples interpretation of the wording used.

e.g. "you are allowed to spend it away from the place on your employer's premises where you work"

It doesn't say that you MUST be away from your workstation/place at all, it simply affords YOU the option of not taking it 'on the go'. For example, if you work the front desk of a building, you may take your break at a place which is not the front desk. It would be an offence for your Employer to insist that you to stay at the front desk whilst you have your break. Basically it is a measure put in place to prevent the opportunity for your employer to request for instance that you eat your sandwiches whilst still answering the phones or typing that urgent letter. The same is the case here, Royal Mail cannot insist that you take your break at your workstation, on the shop floor on the street or in any place where you would normally be performing work. (This stops them asking you to 'throw in' whilst eating a sixty pence chocolate bar and drinking a forty pence instant coffee).

Health and Safety issues aside, the front of a shared van is not normally where a non-driver would be performing work and may therefore not be considered as their workplace. However it could be argued that the driver cannot be requested to take their break in the van unless they were to switch seats with the non-driver!

If both occupants of the vehicle were trained drivers then I'd suggest that it wouldn't be long before a system was implemented where Royal Mail would ask for split breaks. One person would be asked to rest whilst the other drove and then vice-versa further into the duty.

I would therefore suggest, once again apart from the H & S aspects, that requesting Employees to take their break in the van could be open to abuse by the Employer and should be tackled now.