Angard new terms, pay taken down?

[redlen]

Cannot see how you can say NO to a pay rise after 12 weeks as the AWR is a statutory obligation with all employers with hourly rate.

[TobysPaw]

@gurpbarnes6 yeah I got a rise after 26 weeks and 26 weeks is a milestone on the ratecard for my MC

[MailSorter10]

Pay increases after 26 weeks are you sure since when? Pay card I have states after 12 weeks and 52 weeks worth of work not 26 weeks. After 260 weeks same pay now before used to slight difference if I am not mistaken.

I personally never received so called pay card, but saw older one for my MC and there was increase after 26 weeks. And I certainly got the increase.

[MailSorter10]

And now I got email from Angard that I was on incorrect rate and it will go down in 4 weeks. So that's me ending that career.

[capaldi]

Totally unfair. They cannot simply change the terms of your employment like that.

Have they mentioned when was the cut-off date for New entrants vs the Old contract. I've heard different stories, but no one said categorically October 2022 or October 2023. One thing I know for sure is that up until April 2024 they were posting Angard job vacancies which advertised paid breaks after 12-week continuous service. That's why many Angard employees that started even in April 2024 had their breaks paid.

Would you at least keep your Sunday rate?

[MailSorter10]

No, there's nothing about Sunday rate and no information when the cut off for new contract was. I already responded to email voicing my opinion.

I can't see myself working along some lazy people earning more than me and having paid breaks. Unpaid break is deal breaker, because it takes a lot out of shift payment. I could live with rate lowered by £2 per hour, but losing more to unpaid break is too much. After tax, it's very low money, not worth getting up from bed. I'm on night shift, so not going to lose my sleep for peanuts.

I was usually doing two Sunday shifts paid at £24.13ph, early morning and evening, so no more of that. Manager will have to find himself new trusted worker.

These are the rates I received in email:

Angard_new_rates.jpg

I found job ad for my mail centre on Angard website and rates are higher and breaks are paid. "The rates displayed are payable for the entirety of your shift where the shift description criteria is met."

Advertised_rates.jpg

[capaldi]

You'd be still losing out even if you stay on your current terms. pretty sure sooner or later they will try and reduce the shifts of all those "legacy contracts". They already took some cost saving measures. We used to have 4 managers on Sunday, now it's only two. They now book less people for each shift to do the same amount of work, trying to save every penny.

For those who started before the strikes, pretty sure they will reduce the number of Sundays for them by booking more new Angard staff and also hire more full-time RM new entrants for weekend shifts who would not be entitled to Sunday pay, paid breaks etc.

From what I can see here (attached files) They are basically trying to make you work more hours in order to get the same amount of pay you're currently getting as you would need to hit 40 hours before you start getting 18.58 per hour overtime rate which is still much lower than the 24/ph Sunday rate. But at least you can have the weekend off. If you do Mon-Fri 11 hours x 5 days = 55 hours and you get paid 15.74 for 40 hours and then 10 hrs x 18.58 which is still not bad I guess. As long as you get the shifts of course.

[MailSorter10]

Yes, total hours were cut for our Mail Centre and they book fewer people, but I was still doing decent hours. Since hours were cut at the beginning of July, we're failing our job most of the nights.

Angard can try to book new staff for Sunday nights, except there's no new staff that want to work then. Why would they sacrifice their weekend for £15ph. Most of staff on night shift are old timers and only certain people work on weekends. There are the same people coming every day.

We were never paid overtime. Previously we would just clock above 40h Mon-Sat on standard rate and then Sunday rate would kick in for remaining hours. Also, bank holiday rate was 18.81 in May and 19.15 recently. So these rates in the ad from Angard website are not correct really. I still used that ad to complain about my rate going below one which is advertised on their website.

Except holiday period, it's difficult to hit 40h per week. Shifts are usually 0.30 - 6.15 (5h 45 min including 40min break on paper and 30min in real life). Can be longer if you're lucky and someone is on holiday or can be just 1.45 - 6.15 (4h 30 min including 20 min break). With downgraded rates and unpaid breaks, that won't earn anyone a lot. That's why it's not worth getting up from bed.

[capaldi]

Perhaps they didn't acknowledge that you were in London so they mistakenly sent you the nationwide /non-London/ pay card.

I'm pretty sure yours would be slightly higher than 15.74. Should be around 16.40 or something + the 4.2% increase after the 29th Sep. Plus Christmas bonus rate between October and January I'd imagine.

You better stay until January and see what happens after that.

[TobysPaw]

And now I got email from Angard that I was on incorrect rate and it will go down in 4 weeks. So that's me ending that career.

Sorry to hear this, it seems ludicrous, not least in light of the job advert that you’ve highlighted.

If no joy in a few days after your email reply, I would raise an official grievance with HR. While Angard are often terrible, the HR team is the one thing I’ve found to be very good. If nothing else, they’ll be forced to give you some straight answers.

[MailSorter10]

Angard claims 15.74 is correct rate but did not tell me what's the cut off time for these worse contracts. I'm trying to establish it, to make sure it applies to me. Also, trying to establish, what would be non-AWR rate if I decide to quit and re-join in future.

At the moment, my plan is to work until the rate drops, use all my holiday and quit. Then re-join via Royal Mail as casual for Christmas. If I stay at Angard for Christmas I would get hardly any shifts becasue all the work goes to casuals. I worked only on weekends last year and since working on weekends is not an option now due to low rate, no point in staying.

I'm not happy about it, since I liked the job and did not plan to quit, but don't see any other option.

[capaldi]

My advice is: Do not leave. Fight for your rights until the issue is fully resolved in your favour. In a civilised manner, of course. You've got nothing to lose anyway.

Meanwhile you can start a new job elsewhere and do 1 shift for Angard each month just to remain on their system. Later, if you manage to convince them that you were right, you can have your AWR (paid breaks, Sunday premium) eligibility back and you can potentially claim your unpaid breaks backdated.

[MailSorter10]

I'm not going to leave for another 6 weeks at least. Decrease is from 29th of September and I have two weeks of leave to use as well. So there's enough time to exchange couple of emails, but I don't think, I can win that one. Simply because I did start after October 2023.

Christmas jobs go live on 10th of September, so I'm going to apply for that.

Angard is my second job, so I won't be unemployed. I kept it, because I liked it and as a backup.

[zacattack]

The cu off for the legacy contract is October 2022, not 2023. Basically before the strikes started in 2022. RM had a hiring freeze during the strikes and everyone hired after that is on the new contract.

[MailSorter10]

In that case, I expect more pople getting emails about pay cut.

Since I started my email exchange with Angard, they took down all job ads on their website and re-advertised job for my mail centre (and possibly others) on government job website and rates are the lower ones, the same that were sent in email to me and posted upthread.

Anyone knows if Angard is paid the same per supplied person/hour, or they actually charge based on two tier costs? It would be confidential information, but somone might know.