2m rule reduced to 1m

Rommagic · Post by **Rommagic** » 22 Jun 2020, 15:15

15 deaths.

weary_posty · Post by **weary_posty** » 22 Jun 2020, 22:28

With the expected announcement tomorrow of the social distancing rule to reduce from 2 metres to 1 how do you think it will impact our working practices?

Will van shares return with face masks?
If so will split shifts end?
Return to lapsing?

What are your thoughts?

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 23 Jun 2020, 07:58

Reducing the distance from 2m to 1m makes absolutely no difference to van sharing. It is just as impossible to maintain 1m distance as it is 2m in a van. A point to remember though is that 1m and 2m are not interchangeable risk levels, the government has based the change on a drop in community transmission not the fact that 1m is as safe as 2m. It clearly isn't.

Whether RM decides that the use of facemasks mitigates the risk of transmission enough to return to van sharing is an entirely separate question.

It will mostly be a decision made by lawyers. Companies that are not "Covid secure" are going to be sitting ducks for compensation claims in the future.

Rommagic · Post by **Rommagic** » 23 Jun 2020, 13:03

How comes bin men etc work from the same vehicle,they together more then two postie's in a Van.

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 23 Jun 2020, 13:59

Rommagic wrote:How comes bin men etc work from the same vehicle,they together more then two postie's in a Van.

Both Unison and Unite have been fighting to stop this from the start but at the end of the day it's nothing to do with us.

emu72 · Post by **emu72** » 23 Jun 2020, 16:50

it’s so hypocritical all this.if this virus is that bad then why is anyone allowed to work,key workers or not.while half the country sit at home,apparantly we are ok to carry on.theres no social distancing at our office.it just isn’t managed properly.we are constantly working close to one another,sorting packets,clearing sacks down etc.us key workers are treated as guinea pigs.plus there’s no fairness now that there’s no van sharing as one duty is normally lighter than the other.another thing managers haven’t sorted out

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 23 Jun 2020, 16:50

I'm actually struggling to see what's changed from our point of view.
This is the new position.

A “1-metre-plus” approach will mean members of the public can be 1 metre away from each other as long as other measures are put in place to limit the transmission of the virus. These include wearing a face covering, installing screens, making sure people face away from each other and providing extra handwashing facilities.

“Where it is possible to keep 2 metres apart, people should,” he added. “But where it is not, we will advise people to keep a social distance of 1-metre-plus, meaning they should remain 1 metre apart, while taking mitigations to reduce the risk of transmission.”

.

And this is the existing business guidance that's been in place virtually from the start. .

in situations where there are tasks that mean the 2 metre social distancing can’t be achieved, employee should consider the guidance recently issued by the UK Government which guides employees to work side by side or facing away from each other rather than face-to-face if possible. This guidance does not change other preventative measures in place but is an additional measure relevant to identified specific tasks only where the two metre distancing can’t be achieved and should not be used as a means to have more employees working together in limited spaces.

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 23 Jun 2020, 20:59

It's hard to see any logic in England’s easing of the social distancing.

You can move from two metres to one metre but only if you wear a mask or fit a perspex screen or face away from each other?

You can go to a pub but not a nightclub.

You can go to a hairdresser but not a nail bar.

You can stuff your face in a restaurant but you can't go to the gym to work it off.

You can socialise with any amount of complete strangers in a pub but you can't have all of your family over for Sunday lunch.

It's a complete farce.

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 23 Jun 2020, 21:20

My gut feeling is that towards the end of August, depending on how it plays out, the government might axe social distancing completely, probably sooner. Once just about all business re-open there's no way that either of the bus companies locally will have the capacity with all buses having got their maximum capacity cut. If social distancing is still in at the start of September them the secondary schools can go whistle, no coach or bus company locally will be able to provide any buses/coaches for school bus runs as for the bus companies at least they'll need all their buses for their normal services. As for coach companies, it's anyone's guess as to if there will be any left

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 23 Jun 2020, 22:22

The problem with that idea is that by September we could be smack bang in the middle of another wave and distancing could be back up to 2m again.

Jpro747 · Post by **Jpro747** » 24 Jun 2020, 17:12

The sensible thing to do would be hold out for a little longer, knock the virus on the head before winter. If everything goes back to normal too early a second wave during winter would be a cataclysmic f**k up.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 24 Jun 2020, 17:23

The furlough scheme by the government is one of the most generous measures offered to people to stay at home and get paid for doing bugger all. Don't quite know why they have strung it out till October when many businesses are back on July 4th. The idea that they will all have a job to come back to isn't always the case if the business in the meantime is potentially losing thousands in lost revenue and sales. Personally, I don't think that all us couriers should have been classed as "key workers" unless we deliver food and essential medicines. Its a great irony that Royal Mail with its thousands of workers in mail and delivery centres were still allowed to carry on working "business as usual" given that the virus generally spreads when there are that many people gathered around indoors.

Why was Social distancing done on the fly by the CWU?? For me, it was basically a case of turning up one day and being told that we can't have 2 guys to a van, we can't have sorters less than 2m away from each other and we must have a one-way system etc etc. If that was the case why didn't the Union tell everyone to go home that day while they could be given time to really plan the office and make everything safe for everybody? This is what should have happened when lives are being lost to this virus.

And whilst I might envoy those guys who are currently furloughed, there is a flip side to all this. Like, what would have happened if the government said that the Royal Mail had to close like other businesses? Would we be in the position like many of the Airlines in making staff redundant if deliveries didn't happen? Sometimes, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about and for now we should be grateful we are all in jobs.

centenaryman · Post by **centenaryman** » 24 Jun 2020, 19:23

postslippete wrote:The furlough scheme by the government is one of the most generous measures offered to people to stay at home and get paid for doing bugger all. Don't quite know why they have strung it out till October when many businesses are back on July 4th. The idea that they will all have a job to come back to isn't always the case if the business in the meantime is potentially losing thousands in lost revenue and sales. Personally, I don't think that all us couriers should have been classed as "key workers" unless we deliver food and essential medicines. Its a great irony that Royal Mail with its thousands of workers in mail and delivery centres were still allowed to carry on working "business as usual" given that the virus generally spreads when there are that many people gathered around indoors.

Why was Social distancing done on the fly by the CWU?? For me, it was basically a case of turning up one day and being told that we can't have 2 guys to a van, we can't have sorters less than 2m away from each other and we must have a one-way system etc etc. If that was the case why didn't the Union tell everyone to go home that day while they could be given time to really plan the office and make everything safe for everybody? This is what should have happened when lives are being lost to this virus.

And whilst I might envoy those guys who are currently furloughed, there is a flip side to all this. Like, what would have happened if the government said that the Royal Mail had to close like other businesses? Would we be in the position like many of the Airlines in making staff redundant if deliveries didn't happen? Sometimes, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about and for now we should be grateful we are all in jobs.

generally agree with you....its been a 12 week slog battered most days
think im happy theres still jobs for us for now.
but the spread....2m in offices....the only lad in our office that had to offically isolate was down to his wife catching covid working in a care home.
i havnt noticed that many cases and early on were in an area that had a high rate of covid

parcels were rumoured at 1st to hold the covid for upto 3 days....i had ppl spraying there parcels on the door step.....
but i did wonder if thats the case how come 1000`s of us didnt catch it....then thy told us it doesnt spread via parcels

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