reserves discriminated against mech reserves. legal ?

[kazordoon]

I work in a mail centre and I am a reserve, That means that I am on a different shift and duty every week.
The story is a bit confusing, and I will try my best to explain the situation.
In my mail centre there are around 600 staff, 30 of which are reserves.
All of the reserves are mech trained, so we can be put on a mech duty, and if that happens we are paid TPM allowance, some £20.
But among those 30 reserves, 4 or 5 of them are "mech reserves", which means that they get the TPM allowance, it doesnt matter if they get a mech duty or not.

Now, our resourcing manager, who is the person who allocate the reserves to duties every week, is giving the mech duties to the mech reserves first, and then the manual duties, which don't attract TPM allowance, to the other reserves, who have the same skills and therefore can perform the same duties. He says that it's done like that to save money to the company: since the mech reserves will get the TPM allowance whatever their duty, the company is paying out less TPM if he gives the mech duties to those mech reserves.

That is in theory , of course. What happens is that once those mech rserves get their mech duties, they swap their mech duties for their friends manual duties. So those mech reserve keep their TPM allowance, and their friends are getting the TPM every week. The allocation of duties is not fair because it hasn't been allocated by the resourcing manager in a random o rota way, but allocated by those mech reserves.

The union in my mail centre agrees with this system , so I cannot go to them for help. What other ways do I have to fight this situation ?

[tetley smooth]

Thought they'd done away with reserves covering any shift. Its normally dedicated early, late and night shift reserves. Are you sure that you only have 30 reserves for a 600 bodied MC?

[Steviea34]

I work in a mail centre and I am a reserve, That means that I am on a different shift and duty every week.
The story is a bit confusing, and I will try my best to explain the situation.
In my mail centre there are around 600 staff, 30 of which are reserves.
All of the reserves are mech trained, so we can be put on a mech duty, and if that happens we are paid TPM allowance, some £20.
But among those 30 reserves, 4 or 5 of them are "mech reserves", which means that they get the TPM allowance, it doesnt matter if they get a mech duty or not.

Now, our resourcing manager, who is the person who allocate the reserves to duties every week, is giving the mech duties to the mech reserves first, and then the manual duties, which don't attract TPM allowance, to the other reserves, who have the same skills and therefore can perform the same duties. He says that it's done like that to save money to the company: since the mech reserves will get the TPM allowance whatever their duty, the company is paying out less TPM if he gives the mech duties to those mech reserves.

That is in theory , of course. What happens is that once those mech rserves get their mech duties, they swap their mech duties for their friends manual duties. So those mech reserve keep their TPM allowance, and their friends are getting the TPM every week. The allocation of duties is not fair because it hasn't been allocated by the resourcing manager in a random o rota way, but allocated by those mech reserves.

The union in my mail centre agrees with this system , so I cannot go to them for help. What other ways do I have to fight this situation ?

How do they get the TPM allowance,if they have been allocated a manual duty,who then authorises the TPM payment?

Just let the Resourcing manager know and if you get no joy from him, tell the M.C Manager, i am sure he will be more than happy is already meagre
budget is being wasted. How can the CWU justify agreeing with the swaps? i would be interested to here how they justify agreeing with that practice?

[kazordoon]

Thought they'd done away with reserves covering any shift. Its normally dedicated early, late and night shift reserves. Are you sure that you only have 30 reserves for a 600 bodied MC?

it's around 30 full time reserves, could be 35 perhaps. There are also the part time reserves, another 30-35, but they are floating on fixed late shift duties only.

[kazordoon]

How do they get the TPM allowance,if they have been allocated a manual duty,who then authorises the TPM payment?

Just let the Resourcing manager know and if you get no joy from him, tell the M.C Manager, i am sure he will be more than happy is already meagre
budget is being wasted. How can the CWU justify agreeing with the swaps? i would be interested to here how they justify agreeing with that practice?

I'm not sure why they get the TPM allowance on manual duties. I have to find out. Perhaps something related with payment protection ?
The idea of the swaps is in theory to give more chances to the reserves to get a shift or duty that they like. But it becomes unfair when some reserves are getting always the best duties.

[teesdale]

Reserves at Bristol Mail Centre only cover for one shift only. They are not required to cover another shift ever,eg. night reserve only covers night duties. There are no permanent reserve mech positions with TPM paid throughout the year (holidays/sick etc). TPM for any reserve covering by the day or week is recorded on a form for payment of about £4 a day. TPM isnt paid on overtime. No one can swap duties for a day or week within a shift or across shifts. It is possible to permanently swap duties.

[not me]

usual face fits scenario