basic rights as a casual worker

[littlehead]

ive worked for RM for over 15 years, my nephew has started as a casual worker over christmas at warrington mail center, frankly im ashamed at how RM treat their casual staff, doing an 8 hour shif t and only being given a 20 min break?! standing on the sorting for 8 hours and told that he is not allowed to sit down and sort, a manager actually took a chair away from him and said that casual staff wernt allowed them. i wish that id never suggested it to him now.

[Verging]

ive worked for RM for over 15 years, my nephew has started as a casual worker over christmas at warrington mail center, frankly im ashamed at how RM treat their casual staff, doing an 8 hour shif t and only being given a 20 min break?! standing on the sorting for 8 hours and told that he is not allowed to sit down and sort, a manager actually took a chair away from him and said that casual staff wernt allowed them. i wish that id never suggested it to him now.

The break sounds incorrect - for 8 hours I think the RM casuals at our place are getting 40 minutes. There is no valid reason for a casual not to have a chair.

Yes they treat the casuals poorly in comparison to other workers.

[ennabee]

An RM casual working with me is stopped half an hour for breaks ie. gets paid seven and a half hours for an eight hour shift , so they should get at least half an hour. 40 mins seems pretty standard

[Rafiki]

Depends on the manager and what you are doing.

Out on the stages pushing the yorks in and outward you can get 50 minutes with some managers, packets 40 minutes, letters 30 minutes but it all depends on who the manager is at the time. On a night shift many managers will give you 40 minutes lunch. You are only deducted 30 minutes for the lunch, but 20 minutes is definitely wrong. I would approach them.

The seating situation on the letters anyway is the same at the place I'm at. There are many chairs available, but they will take them away if you are a male and there are women around. Not seen any cases where they have just taken them away from you because you are a casual.

[verbal]

30 mins break un paid and 10 mins tea paid..
Chairs are available to everyone , in fact some people are turning up early so they know they can get a chair before they are all taken..lol....

[rooney]

The 20 minute break is odd.

And It's not fair that some people are sitting and others standing. Another problem is that some people are sitting on very comfortable chairs and others on really bad chairs that could hurt your back.

I can understand the pay difference though .. the permanent and angard staff are experienced and so should be paid more .. usually the christmas casuals are not experienced and will take their time to learn everything .. so I guess it's fair to give them a lower wage .

[ennabee]

Angard workers get more only if they've worked 12 weeks without a 6 week break, this applies to all agency staff and is a LEGAL requirement. Starting Angard rates are, I think, £6.19 for days and £6.69 for nights (some sites pay more than that to brand new Xmas casuals for nights).

[calummc92]

While I have never had a seat taken off me if I was lucky enough to get one, there should be enough seating for all workers, sometimes I spend 7 and a half hours standing in the same position and it buggers my back and feet, a lot of other people have had the same complaints.

[dibaser18]

Well I was working on hand stamping for 7.5 hours the other day and a manager took a chair off a lad next to me and said you don't need that and turned a deaf ear to his complaints you could tell the coaches knew it was wrong.I was also put on oversized parcels for nearly four hours without a change over but the perm staff changed every hour ? And no women at all worked on the oversize while I was there apart from one perm women who was doing it for half an hour doesn't seem to match the royal mail health and safety polices.

[newtimes]

While I have never had a seat taken off me if I was lucky enough to get one, there should be enough seating for all workers, sometimes I spend 7 and a half hours standing in the same position and it buggers my back and feet, a lot of other people have had the same complaints.

This gets me so anoyed, totally out of order, what can we do, how can we make it better http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20771517 :dcfo