Overtime ban despite crisis!

Post by **onejontwo** » 20 Mar 2020, 20:37

After completing my walk this afternoon I was greeted with an announcement that despite being in a time of crisis and currently 11 staff self-isolating, we were informed that on no account were we to work our days off, no overtime was to be paid in the foreseeable future and to revert to our contracted hours from tomorrow (21/03/2012). Now to me this seems to defy all logic as walks are failing and at a time like this surely the opposite would be implemented ie. lots of overtime as on 17/03/2012 we all were texted to ask if we could work our days off! Any thoughts?

scoobydo79 · Post by **scoobydo79** » 20 Mar 2020, 20:53

Yeah start at your proper time finish at Your proper time and take Your breaks...easy!

Post by **wacko74** » 21 Mar 2020, 05:44

Perhaps it's something RM have got to do in order to be entitled to the govt 'wage support' money on offer to employers?

Although I've already been asked to work my day off for the next 2 weeks.

olilew · Post by **olilew** » 21 Mar 2020, 12:57

We've got 22 staff off. They've told us if we cover any other walks on OT they will pay us. We've basically got carte blanche to work as much as we like and they will pay us for it.

2yearpostie · Post by **2yearpostie** » 21 Mar 2020, 17:35

normal overtime is being paid (within reason) , what they arent doing is offering overtime for any failed walks. Failed walks will be going out the next day with 2 days post even if that means failing another walk in the office.

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 22 Mar 2020, 20:26

olilew wrote:We've got 22 staff off. They've told us if we cover any other walks on OT they will pay us. We've basically got carte blanche to work as much as we like and they will pay us for it.

Well that's kind of them to pay you to work over your time

, but couldn't you do it for free and for the good of the company and the love of the job

scoobydo79 · Post by **scoobydo79** » 23 Mar 2020, 15:07

worktotime wrote:
olilew wrote:We've got 22 staff off. They've told us if we cover any other walks on OT they will pay us. We've basically got carte blanche to work as much as we like and they will pay us for it.

Well that's kind of them to pay you to work over your time

, but couldn't you do it for free and for the good of the company and the love of the job
You know sadly there was a time when I would have.

oypostie · Post by **oypostie** » 23 Mar 2020, 15:46

Looks like Royal Fail are going to use Coronavirus as an excuse for the quality figures going through the floor so why spend money getting the walks out. Profits are far more important

Poole70 · Post by **Poole70** » 23 Mar 2020, 16:12

They have to stop people working their days off in order to minimise our contact individuals with others...even though we are "key workers" in this , we are not actual frontline like the NHS , so there needs to be a degree of corporate responsibility (for a change!!).

If you work 6 days and do lots of OT then you are more likely (statistically) to come into contact with more people...enforcing days off helps to control this (a bit).

Duties are going to fail all over the place , get used to it...the focus will be important mail...parcels , NHS communications , government (local & national) communications etc.

Good DO managers (there are some) should be able to work out the best plan in order to not fail duties on consecutive days...also , stopping van sharing will have to mean one side of a park & loop duty not going out in full anyway.

The rule book is being ripped up here...who is gonna give a f**k if their credit card bill is delayed by a few days?!..as long as the important stuff gets through that's all that matters.

The company MUST sort our H&S situation out asap though or the absentee numbers will just keep going up...

ScousePostie · Post by **ScousePostie** » 23 Mar 2020, 16:56

We've been told the same. No overtime whatsoever from today onwards. Just over a third of the staff in our office are off sick. A lot of walks never went out on Saturday, and the same again today. Most walk holders have been moved off their walks to cover duties that didn't go out on Saturday - and because most of those walks had two days worth of mail, they were not completed and loops brought back.

I honestly think that the business, despite being considered a service that is going to keep the country going, we are heading for a temporary shutdown. If more keep going off sick, mail isn't going out, how are we supposed to keep up with the mail and packets that don't stop coming in. On top of all this, the union wants assurances from RM that social distancing advice is being adhered, and rightly so!

I might be wrong, but time will tell.

A2B · Post by **A2B** » 23 Mar 2020, 17:28

Still overtime available at our place and plenty of people working rest weeks/days

Dex7 · Post by **Dex7** » 23 Mar 2020, 18:44

We have a big white board up logging how many people can work their days off and pressured more than ever to work over.

Grumpyoldmailman · Post by **Grumpyoldmailman** » 23 Mar 2020, 18:56

There’s blokes at ours still out delivering now.

viking1488 · Post by **viking1488** » 23 Mar 2020, 19:09

Grumpyoldmailman wrote:There’s blokes at ours still out delivering now.

thats just stupid

Post by **onejontwo** » 23 Mar 2020, 20:57

How come there is such a big variation in different offices regarding overtime, days off etc. I would have thought that a decision like this would have come from the top (even Rico himself!) but it seems to be an individual DO decision. Just a thought, if we are struggling with short staff in the DO, how come there seems to be more mail and parcels than ever coming from the sorting offices, are they superhuman down there with no one off sick?