Scheduled Attendance being removed

[mr hil.]

In my office there is a rumoyur that all the Scheduled attendances are to be converted to "contracted" hours and staff will be recruited to fill the new posts.

I have been doing schedule attendances for a while now and was wondering if any compensation would be payable under the MTSF agreement or do we just get a months notice and then thats it.....no more Over time!!!!

[DGP1]

This has been on the cards for years now, just get used to your contracted weekly wage and learn to live on that.

[Dogs of War]

What is Scheduled attendances?

[rhino49]

What is Scheduled attendances?

It is an additional duty which attracts an enhanced rate of pay and which needs guaranteed attendance (hence "scheduled") - usually covering afternoon collections and done by early start staff who use it as an excuse to get their walks covered or get off the IPS because they cannot get finished in time to do their premium rate overtime.
In my opinion (and not a humble one I hasten to add) it is an expensive perk and should be replaced by more part time duties for people who need jobs instead of people who already have one and cost the business twice for one job done badly in order to do another that pays them more.

[ronpetetrevchris]

I believe they have to give you a months SA rate after you have stopped, i think, sorry i cant be more precise it was quite a while ago our SA's went.

[baldrick]

Most of our SAs were terminated over a year ago. RM only have to give you 4 weeks notice of termination.
They do not give you any compensation. Still at least your SA hours are being converted into contracted hours, so may make for more full
time jobs.

[hubbahubba]

Most of our SAs were terminated over a year ago. RM only have to give you 4 weeks notice of termination.
They do not give you any compensation. Still at least your SA hours are being converted into contracted hours, so may make for more full
time jobs.

Yep,same here.I lost my SA a few months back,you just get the standard 1 months notice of termination.
With the current job situation in this country,more and more people are willing to work unsocial hours/days,so RM are laughing when it comes to filling unfavourable timeslots.Some poor sods at the MC are on temp contracts 11am-7pm saturday only
Sign of the times,im afraid....

[blackadder]

Most of our SAs were terminated over a year ago. RM only have to give you 4 weeks notice of termination.
They do not give you any compensation. Still at least your SA hours are being converted into contracted hours, so may make for more full
time jobs.

more full time jobs ??? i dont fink so. more then likely it be later start times to cover the sa

[clashcityrocker]

Is this how SA work?
If there is 80 hours of work to do.......
A postie on a 40 hr contract gets 10 hours o/t.
Another postie has to remain on a 30hr contract.

[andy2007]

No. If Management want you to work the same overtime, every week. They give you a second contract (S/A Contract) to sign, which means that you MUST perform that overtime, until either you, or the Manager, gives sufficient notice (I think it's 28 days) to cancel it. If you can't attend, for whatever reason. It's up to you to find cover, not the Manager. Because it's compulsary (S/A is the only compulsary overtime in RM), and you have the extra responsibility of making sure it's covered, if you can't attend. You get a better hourly rate, when performing S/A.

[clashcityrocker]

Thanks for that really informative description of Scheduled Attendance.
The point I was making (perhaps a little too facetiously I grant you) is that in a time when we are struggling to maintain full time jobs, overtime in any shape or form is impossible to defend.
One full timers scheduled attendance is keeping a colleague on a part time contract.
We currently have approx 40 hours of SA in our office. That is a full time job of work.
Would you defend those people's "right " to o/t or would you rather see that work redistributed so 4 p/t staff could be made f/t or 2 people could be taken off the dole and give a p/t contract?

[fishtank]

As the company sheds 24,000 jobs the idea of S.A becomes more and more unsustainable.
S.A. was always morally questionable...now it's also embarrassingly outdated.

[clashcityrocker]

As the company sheds 24,000 jobs the idea of S.A becomes more and more unsustainable.
S.A. was always morally questionable...now it's also embarrassingly outdated.

Unless you currently do it in which case the union must protect your earnings.

[fishtank]

Unless you currently do it in which case the union must protect your earnings.

I would happily ban all overtime over 40hrs or in the case of my office...39hrs.

[andy2007]

It depends on the circumstances Clash. For example: If you're already working full time, and do a lot of S/A. Then if the work isn't time critical (e.g. a couple of hours at the start/end of the shift, which couldn't be spread out over a longer time), it's greedy to do it, if there's duties being removed. On the other hand: Sometimes time critical work has to be done in a short time, before or after the shift. Which is a good use of S/A. Although, Management got around that at our place, by re-arranging the shift patterns. So there's been no S/A (and very rarely any overtime at all) for a while now. Although it hasn't resulted in any new Duties. Just less time to do the same work.

More relevant to Deliveries though (I work indoors), is the growing number of people on part time contracts, who do full time hours (or close to it). Are you seriously suggesting that they should loose their overtime, to enable someone else to get a part time job?
Remember: F/T duties are virtually impossible to get in Deliveries. So effectively, you'd be condemning thousands to working for a pittance! I don't know whether the overtime they do is S/A, or Pressure. But if they're doing it every day, then their Reps should have made it S/A some time ago. And if they haven't, they should be fighting for it NOW!