Displaced MGV drivers procedure policy ?

[phunt]

Hi , first time poster. I'm trying to find out the official procedure for workers that are being paid 7.5 ton allowance but not performing 7.5 ton work (because they were displaced from there original duty) when a 7.5 ton duty becomes available. Should the driver be asked to take the vacancy and loose the allowance if the duty is refused or does the duty get advertised for any 7.5 ton driver to pick on seniority? Thanks

[rehabron]

Hi , first time poster. I'm trying to find out the official procedure for workers that are being paid 7.5 ton allowance but not performing 7.5 ton work (because they were displaced from there original duty) when a 7.5 ton duty becomes available. Should the driver be asked to take the vacancy and loose the allowance if the duty is refused or does the duty get advertised for any 7.5 ton driver to pick on seniority? Thanks

Having been in receipt of the 7.5 tonne allowance then you would have been a professional driver as per the professional drivers agreement 2007. Now no longer driving this type of vehicle this has no effect on your professional driver status and having been displaced from a PD duty you have now become a surplus employee and now come under the umbrella of the MTSF Agreement 2010 with pay protection up to a maximum of 3 years unless you have consented or volunteered to be removed from PD driving duties. If a 7.5 tonne duty became available and because you are still in receipt of this driving allowance then management would expect you to fill this post if suitable and failing to accept this duty unless you can give a sound reason for your refusal then your driving allowance would be withdrawn. You in the position of a surplus employee having been displaced due to business transformation etc would be given priority over seniority.

[rainbowwarrior72]

My understanding is that as it is not an allowance anymore and you should get paid the extra rate in your pay it's for life. You only lose it if you voluntarily refuse a MGV role if offered. Its similar to London weighting as it is included in our basic pay now if you are moved out of the London Weighting area (Watford MC) you go on Marked down basis re you stay on the current rate you were on but you don't get any future increase

[phunt]

Thank you for the replies. I happened upon this forum because i keep getting conflicting information as above locally so i thought i would try online, so here i is my situation. Please bare with me as it may be a bit lengthy haha.
I currently work in a mailcentre in the distribution side of the function as a collection driver (small wheels). I am a professional driver CPC card holder (not in receipt of 7.5 ton money) and have nearly 21 years service and iv'e been trying to get a 7.5 duty for 9 years now. Early on in my quest i had lost out in repicks and duty advertisements due to not being senior enough or there not being a suitable duty left at the end of the repick. However for the last few years we have had at least 3 displaced drivers due to business transformation, so each time vacancies become available i am told i can not even apply for the the duties as there are people being paid the money but not doing the work but these 3 drivers (all less senior than myself) are never made to fill the position but instead are just told they need to be seen to be applying for them but every time loose out to more senior staff. So basically every 6 months the most senior drivers move sideways on there duties and we are always left with 3 displaced drivers. So as you can see my 'quest' seems pretty futile. And now it just gets worse, Recently our distribution function was split and anyone driving small wheels is now classed as a processing sub function and the big wheels guys are distribution ( i don't know the ins and outs of this split). The new list of vacancies have just been put up and there are 6 7.5 ton duties available , 3 permanent and 3 temp but the ad says only qualified cpc drivers currently working in distribution may apply for the 3 perm duties (not me as i'm now apparently processing) and any qualified cpc holders may apply for the temp duties but given to distribution staff ( not me ) in the first instance. I questioned my distribution manager about this and he again tells me that i can not be considered for the duties because he doesn't want to increase the number of distribution staff whilst he still has 3 displaced drivers. But although these advertised duties are suitable hours for all three displaced drivers they are not being told they have to take them , again they are just being told that they need to apply for at least one which they will have no chance of getting because more senior staff will apply. As you can imagine this is very frustrating and means i am very unlikely ever to be considered for a 7.5 ton duty. This doesn't seem fair to me in the slightest and i am so frustrated with it all now that i am willing to take it further if needs be. so can someone tell me if the above scenario is being dealt with inline with royal mail policies ( i find it hard to believe such an unfair policy could exist ) and if not what are my courses of action?
P.s My union rep is a good guy and i'm hoping he can sort this but he's on leave at the moment so i'm just trying to get some clarification on the matter before he returns.

[rehabron]

On reading your further posting you have stated that you are classed as a professional driver and a cpc card holder so therefore your basic weekly wage would have been that of a professional driver which is higher than a collection driver which you have labelled as " small wheels". Although your pay slip does not show a driving allowance for driving 7.5 T vehicles the difference is in the higher basic wage from a driver driving small wheels. Having been displaced from driving 7.5T vehicles you have not been displaced from your professional driver status unless due to medical grounds or you have consented to be downgraded.
If you have been removed from driving 7.5T vehicles due to operational change or business transformation than you have in fact become a SURPLUS employee within the distribution function and that is when the MTSF ( Managing the Surplus Framework) kicks in and gives you your higher basic pay protection for up to 3 years. This also to include additional allowances of shift patterns that you have previously enjoyed.
RM as a business would not want to be paying you the higher basic wages for driving small wheels vehicles and will be doing their utmost to get you accommodated into larger vehicle for which they are paying you for at the soonest opportunity.
Not following you that you are in the processing function as originally operating in the distribution function unless somewhere along the line you have agreed to this.
Getting back to 7.5 T vacancies being advertised then this tells me that their is no surplus within the distribution function because this should have been offered to a surplus employee first who has been displaced and if their is more than one displaced driver it will go on their allowances previously enjoyed before seniority. It is part of the MTSF that employees if the duty offered is suitable then they would have to give a very good reason for refusing the duty or risk losing the higher basic salary. Your posting states that drivers have rejected duties offered and not knowing the individual circumstances for their refusal then you would have to take this matter up with RM management and your CWU rep.

[phunt]

Thanks again for taking the time to reply , it's just what i have been looking for and i really appreciate it. However i feel i haven't been very clear in my post and hto avn't explained my situation fully.

1. I used to be a 7.5 ton driver in a small DO in the north west but i transferred to the mail centre in the south west in 2009. As there was no 7.5 ton duties to transfer into at the time i had to take a full time collection driver roll. When the cpc training came around everyone who had done their change over training was given the oppertunity to have the cpc training. My former DO was contacted to confirm i had been a 7.5 ton driver and i was allowed to take my cpc training with everyone else. so yes i am classed as a professional driver and i am a current cpc card holder but apart from a couple of ad hoc runs i have never had a 7.5 ton duty whilst i have been at the mail centre so im not in receipt of the higher 7.5 ton money although i do receive an MGV allowance of around £38 as my collection initially had a hi top vehicle attached to it but that vehicle was removed during a revision but apparently they couldn't take my allowance. anyway that's going off topic. The point is i am not one of the displaced drivers , i am just qualified and have been trying to get a 7.5 ton duty. i hope that's clearer now sorry.

2. like i said i don't know the ins and outs of the splitting of the function , whether or not it was a local or a national thing but basically nothing changed with the function other than the collection staff now have a line manager from the processing side of the mail centre and we are now classed as processing and only 7.5 ton drivers are classed as distribution.

3. There definitely is a surplus of drivers and has been for a few years now , like i said there is 3 displaced drivers currently that are being paid the 7.5 ton money but are doing small wheel collections but they have not rejected duties because they have never actually been offered them because the the vacant duties get advertised and they are just told they need to apply for any of the duties to keep there allowance , which they do but they always loose out to more senior men so basically every 6 months current drivers just move sideways within the function and we are always left with the 3 surplus drivers . For example. 2 of the surplus drivers are late shift workers and and at least 2 of the 6 duties that have been advertised this week are late shift 7.5 duties but they have not been placed into these duties and they will most definatley not get them if they apply because they are relatively junior. Is this wrong?

And now i hope i have explained a bit better my overriding issue is that before the function split ( when i was classed as distribution) i was always told that i could not apply for any 7.5 ton duties because there were surplus drivers being paid and not doing the work as explained above, but now since the split ( now i'm classed as processing) the advertised duties state that only current distribution staff may apply ( not me) . surely this is not correct procedure?

Thanks again.

[rehabron]

Thanks again for taking the time to reply , it's just what i have been looking for and i really appreciate it. However i feel i haven't been very clear in my post and hto avn't explained my situation fully.

1. I used to be a 7.5 ton driver in a small DO in the north west but i transferred to the mail centre in the south west in 2009. As there was no 7.5 ton duties to transfer into at the time i had to take a full time collection driver roll. When the cpc training came around everyone who had done their change over training was given the oppertunity to have the cpc training. My former DO was contacted to confirm i had been a 7.5 ton driver and i was allowed to take my cpc training with everyone else. so yes i am classed as a professional driver and i am a current cpc card holder but apart from a couple of ad hoc runs i have never had a 7.5 ton duty whilst i have been at the mail centre so im not in receipt of the higher 7.5 ton money although i do receive an MGV allowance of around £38 as my collection initially had a hi top vehicle attached to it but that vehicle was removed during a revision but apparently they couldn't take my allowance. anyway that's going off topic. The point is i am not one of the displaced drivers , i am just qualified and have been trying to get a 7.5 ton duty. i hope that's clearer now sorry.

2. like i said i don't know the ins and outs of the splitting of the function , whether or not it was a local or a national thing but basically nothing changed with the function other than the collection staff now have a line manager from the processing side of the mail centre and we are now classed as processing and only 7.5 ton drivers are classed as distribution.

3. There definitely is a surplus of drivers and has been for a few years now , like i said there is 3 displaced drivers currently that are being paid the 7.5 ton money but are doing small wheel collections but they have not rejected duties because they have never actually been offered them because the the vacant duties get advertised and they are just told they need to apply for any of the duties to keep there allowance , which they do but they always loose out to more senior men so basically every 6 months current drivers just move sideways within the function and we are always left with the 3 surplus drivers . For example. 2 of the surplus drivers are late shift workers and and at least 2 of the 6 duties that have been advertised this week are late shift 7.5 duties but they have not been placed into these duties and they will most definatley not get them if they apply because they are relatively junior. Is this wrong?

And now i hope i have explained a bit better my overriding issue is that before the function split ( when i was classed as distribution) i was always told that i could not apply for any 7.5 ton duties because there were surplus drivers being paid and not doing the work as explained above, but now since the split ( now i'm classed as processing) the advertised duties state that only current distribution staff may apply ( not me) . surely this is not correct procedure?

Thanks again.

This posting now gives a completely different perspective on your situation and I will now attempt to answer the points that you have made on the information that you have supplied.
1.You transferred from the a DO in the north west to a mail centre in the south west. If you requested this transfer by choice and not placed by the business unit if your duty at the DO in the north west had been lapsed and this was given as a suitable duty under MTSF procedure then by you accepting this collection duty and not being wage protected then you have relinquished your professional driver status. It is irrelevant that the business has allowed you to attend the cpc module training having discovered that you have previously driven 7.5 T vehicles this is good business sense that as a cpc holder you may be called upon to drive this type of vehicle for operational requirements on an ah-hoc basis which you have already admitted that this has happened but this does not make you a bona fide professional driver but in an operational emergency can be utilised.
2.you work in the processing function of the mail centre and will appear on processing seniority list but not on the distribution seniority list.
3. The 3 displaced drivers who have held professional driver status will although not driving 7.5 T vehicles will still receive the higher weekly payment as per the pay protection under the MTSF agreement 2010 but should vacancies arise within the distribution function then they should have been given the first opportunity to fill these vacancies before being advertised. Duties become advertised after having gone through the resourcing procedure of the way forward agreement.
The MTSF is to ensure that employees who have been displaced through no fault of their own receive no financial detriment and filling posts are subject to previous allowances and not seniority.(a) employee A has held N/S allowance for several years and been displaced but is less senior to employee (B) but employee (B) has not held the allowances as much as employee (A) so if a vacancy has arisen employee (A) would be given first choice for having held their allowances for a greater length of time.