RM to give under-pressure Dundee posties £800 bonuses

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail to give under-pressure Dundee posties £800 bonuses http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Dundee ... nuses.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Posties in Dundee East and elsewhere are each receiving bonus payments of £800 to make the service better.

The disclosure — part of the national agreement between the Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union — would be greeted with a "degree of envy" and "raised eyebrows" by workers in other industries, a Dundee industry leader has said.

Alan Mitchell, chief executive of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, spoke as Royal Mail in Dundee East tries to clear its worst mail backlog in living memory.

The problem has been aggravated by the weather, which has disrupted the distribution of mail nationwide.

But the mail mountain began over a month ago as postmen and women in DD4 and DD5 postcode areas struggled to implement the new system of working entitled The Way Forward.

Teams of posties working in vans were allocated to longer rounds to deliver letters and parcels, but said they couldn't clear their mail sacks by the end of their shifts.

They returned them to the depot in the West Pitkerro Industrial Estate, where the process was repeated.

Before long, the depot became jammed with undelivered mail.

Royal Mail drafted in extra resources to help and nearly succeeded in clearing the backlog when the winter storms arrived.

This time, the posties struggled to get out on icebound pavements and the Dundee East depot became besieged by overflows of letters and parcels.

Royal Mail's apology

The organisation apologised to the people of Dundee East and, despite bringing in more help, failed with their target of delivering all Christmas mail by December 24.

The latest target is for the backlog to be cleared by the end of this week.

Even more help has been brought in and it is believed that this time the target may be met.

People and business have suffered during the saga, however.

In many households, Christmas cards only arrived this week and important mail like bills and hospital appointments have been delivered late.

The Courier has been inundated with phone calls and emails from irate customers, each one sharing their frustration and disappointment at the poor standard of service.

Among their criticisms has been the wisdom of management introducing a new delivery system before Christmas, the busiest spell in the mail calendar, when postal staff appear to have been unprepared or unable to cope with the new arrangements.

Postal staff have supported the change, however, voting for it in a national ballot.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said, "As part of our £2 billion investment in modernising its operations, changes are being made in delivery offices across the country to help it compete in a very competitive marketplace.

"The operational review at Dundee East was part of this."

He added, "The modernisation programme has been undertaken on the basis of a national agreement reached last year between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union, endorsed by postmen and women in a national ballot."

All staff are being paid an £800 bonus — in two £400 sums — to implement the new way of working as part of the national agreement.

The Courier tried to ask local and Scottish leaders of the Communication Workers Union if the people of Dundee East should have expected a better service from their posties given their support for the new system and the incentive bonus payments they are receiving to make it work.

Our calls went unanswered.

Mr Mitchell said, "A lot of businesses have had to go through restructuring to remain competitive and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, and I think a lot of employees who work for them will look at Royal Mail with a degree of envy.

"Employees at Royal Mail are being paid bonuses to make changes that a lot of businesses who don't pay bonuses are having to do just to stay in business and hopefully survive."

He added, "I think that a lot of people in the private sector would raise their eyebrows at what is going on at Royal Mail."

Royal Mail was facing severe pressure in its market with competition from rivals, he said, and it needs to change to survive and provide the service that its customers expect.

Businesses as well as individuals had suffered from the mail backlog in Dundee East, and he said local industry was just urging the organisation to "get on with it and get it cleared."

[pyphon]

i'd rather not have the bonus than have this mess to come in the future.

[DirtyHarry]

i'd rather not have the bonus than have this mess to come in the future.

Me neither. But our f**k-up in my little bit of London is going full steam ahead, regardless of the massive failures elsewhere.

[Broxi51]

i'd rather not have the bonus than have this mess to come in the future.

Me neither. But our f**k-up in my little bit of London is going full steam ahead, regardless of the massive failures elsewhere.

Yeah but RM are now going to the media stating that we voted for this and that we are receiving bonuses for the shambles. Public support
will soon dwindle away if the public nationwide get more of the dundee shambles and believe that we are 800 richer for it.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I have posted a comment and anyone can.

[jockstrapp]

F#ck the public.............maybe if they cleared their paths/stairs they may have got their letters/packets.

[DirtyHarry]

i'd rather not have the bonus than have this mess to come in the future.

Me neither. But our f**k-up in my little bit of London is going full steam ahead, regardless of the massive failures elsewhere.

Yeah but RM are now going to the media stating that we voted for this and that we are receiving bonuses for the shambles. Public support
will soon dwindle away if the public nationwide get more of the dundee shambles and believe that we are 800 richer for it.

I've never really been one for courting public opinion, and anyways, today's public has to be the thickest, most selfish, utterly useless bunch of loafers ever ! Their "support", I can well do without.

[DirtyHarry]

F#ck the public.............maybe if they cleared their paths/stairs they may have got their letters/packets.

Jock, you're a Man after my own heart, mate.

[Bongos]

i'd rather not have the bonus than have this mess to come in the future.

Me neither. But our f**k-up in my little bit of London is going full steam ahead, regardless of the massive failures elsewhere.

Yeah but RM are now going to the media stating that we voted for this and that we are receiving bonuses for the shambles. Public support
will soon dwindle away if the public nationwide get more of the dundee shambles and believe that we are 800 richer for it.

I've never really been one for courting public opinion, and anyways, today's public has to be the thickest, most selfish, utterly useless bunch of loafers ever ! Their "support", I can well do without.

Sorry Dirty Harry don't agree it's like a Footballer saying i don't need Supporters, (Supporters are the ones who pay part of the Footballers wages) We don't just work for Royal Mail we are customers as well and without customers we would have less workers.

[sareknees]

This whole Dundee SHAMBLES has been talked about to death.... When Oh F£$%ing when is someone going to grow a set & ADMIT - WE WERE WRONG .. thats directed at RM & sadly the local cwu for signing this way forward thing off .

Its no just christmas cards that are arriving late thanks to this . SICK TO THE BACK TEETH at all of this now - dont get me started on the suits

[bobbla7896]

the public need to try an do just one day, with this 2010 agreement way forward rubbish,,, they will then understand that every single postman and woman are expexcted to do the work of 2 people,,, yes 16 hours work in 8 hours,,, IT CANNOT BE DONE thats why its failing every where........ its not about money its about the work loads are impossible to do in the time given each day,,, thats why they are bringing it back, cannot be done,, simple... if you dont believe it,, try it,, they will soon realize..

[Wessex]

Posties in Dundee East and elsewhere are each receiving bonus payments of £800 to make the service better.

The disclosure — part of the national agreement between the Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union — would be greeted with a "degree of envy" and "raised eyebrows" by workers in other industries, a Dundee industry leader has said.

Like the Banking Industry perhaps ?

[malcolm3011]

i'd rather not have the bonus than have this mess to come in the future.

Me neither. But our f**k-up in my little bit of London is going full steam ahead, regardless of the massive failures elsewhere.

Yeah but RM are now going to the media stating that we voted for this and that we are receiving bonuses for the shambles. Public support
will soon dwindle away if the public nationwide get more of the dundee shambles and believe that we are 800 richer for it.

Takes the blame off RM and puts the blame at the workers door :

[guvenor]

correct thats what one punter said to me yesterday rm in the press blaming workforce for not progressing agreement properly
personally im not interested in paltry wee bonuses £400 less tax to sell your soul not for me only my opinion

[fishtank]

What's with the two £400 payments anyway?
Thought it was £600 + £200.
And why do they keep calling it the Way Forward?