A little update....

[49erman]

Later starts!! I’ve heard some DO will be 3 hours later not for me…….

[daveyeff]

I understand the cynicism.
I'm one of the biggest.

But...

At some point you have to trust the process if not the players otherwise what's the plan?
We strike until Christmas then what?

The proposed strikes were to bring about meaningful negotiations not to punish Simon for being a tosser, frankly I can't afford the luxury of a personal vendetta against Simon Thompson.

Not now obviously it's way too early but all being well at some point in the negotiations we're going to have to trust the process and suspend the IA because this deal will take some time to sort out.

Otherwise they're not going to go any further and we're not going to get any further.
It is what it is.

Well said - people need to understand it was never about punishing those at the top or trying to get rid - it was about putting the pressure on to get them to negotiate and hey, looks like it worked.

Royal Mail have pretty rapidly gone from intransigence to wanting to negotiate once the threat of a strike during Cyber Week/Black Friday was on.

Will we get everything we want? unlikely - but the likelihood is RM won't get everything they want either.

My prediction?

- a round up of the pay to 8 or 9% backdated, maybe even with a lump sum thrown in
- SISO coming in
- attendance policy changed
- NCI policy replaced
- later starts
- new starter contracts being different (this already happens in Customer Service with the CWU giving not a s**t, so it'll likely happen again to protect the older workers)

I know there's a lot of people who are against any change at all, but I think the above is the kind of compromise we'll end up with.

remember what Thompson said to Andy Fury when he asked him why they pulled all the agreements and ripped them up. i'll quote him......:- oh, you's need to be ''PUNISHED'' for going on strike!! call it tit for tat if you want, but F**K him.

[Woody Guthrie]

The problem is we all know how Royal Mail are going to play it:

I don't think we do.
Yesterday many people were saying Royal Mail are never going to negotiate and want us to strike so they can fire and rehire us but here we are.

I don't think we trust them and it's not really surprising but I don't think anyone really knows how they're going to play this.

Many of the things they want really can't be forced through without things getting messy, I don't think any but the most psychotic and stupid manager would be relishing the idea of forcing through a revision with the staff being as awkward as possible. Forcing people against their will to work later and Sundays?

The business needs an agreement, it just depends on what kind of agreement both sides are willing to accept.

[2chorizon]

I’ll take a punt at 7% this year minus the 2 that we’ve had.Another 3.5% next year with a £300 bonus if we accept everything.Which will be 1 in 6 Sundays ,later starts starting with 1 hr later. Compromise on sick pay benefits. Banked hours and seasonal longs and shorts accepted with SISO. With perhaps the stay out till you drop rule not imposed.All allowances apart from deliver supplements gone after 2 years max.

They have already said they will buy any allowances out with 2 yrs worth of the premium/s paid out upfront in a lump sum. in accordance with existing agreement.
(and they wont look to retrospectively recover past payments)

So the allowance payments will go immediatley but everyone will be compensated with 2 yrs worth up front in a lump sum, that’ll be a few £k for most and will likely be jumped at.

[Wolf91]

The problem is we all know how Royal Mail are going to play it:

I don't think we do.
Yesterday many people were saying Royal Mail are never going to negotiate and want us to strike so they can fire and rehire us but here we are.

I don't think we trust them and it's not really surprising but I don't think anyone really knows how they're going to play this.

Many of the things they want really can't be forced through without things getting messy, I don't think any but the most psychotic and stupid manager would be relishing the idea of forcing through a revision with the staff being as awkward as possible. Forcing people against their will to work later and Sundays?

The business needs an agreement, it just depends on what kind of agreement both sides are willing to accept.

Well I hope you’re right mate.
Forgive my cynicism. I just don’t trust them at all not to be playing that game.

There will have to be change, a lot of us do accept that. Just depends what change. Annualised hours & commit to deliver is just a complete no.

[Schiff]

I’ll take a punt at 7% this year minus the 2 that we’ve had.Another 3.5% next year with a £300 bonus if we accept everything.Which will be 1 in 6 Sundays ,later starts starting with 1 hr later. Compromise on sick pay benefits. Banked hours and seasonal longs and shorts accepted with SISO. With perhaps the stay out till you drop rule not imposed.All allowances apart from deliver supplements gone after 2 years max.

Banked hours is unacceptable to me as is commit to deliver.

As has been pointed out, any deal has to be voted on by the members of the union. The problem for both RM and the union is that we each have our own lines in the sand and those lines are different for everyone. Unless RM drop most of their proposals and increase their pay offer to at least match inflation then I can't see them getting at least 50% to vote in favour of the deal.

[toonshola]

Seems we have all got a little excited. The Narcissist in
Chief has updated workplace 15 mins ago basically saying we still need ACAS and that there will be no improved pay offer next week. Union have jumped the gun/misread the situation.

[2chorizon]

I’ll take a punt at 7% this year minus the 2 that we’ve had.Another 3.5% next year with a £300 bonus if we accept everything.Which will be 1 in 6 Sundays ,later starts starting with 1 hr later. Compromise on sick pay benefits. Banked hours and seasonal longs and shorts accepted with SISO. With perhaps the stay out till you drop rule not imposed.All allowances apart from deliver supplements gone after 2 years max.

Banked hours is unacceptable to me as is commit to deliver.

As has been pointed out, any deal has to be voted on by the members of the union. The problem for both RM and the union is that we each have our own lines in the sand and those lines are different for everyone. Unless RM drop most of their proposals and increase their pay offer to at least match inflation then I can't see them getting at least 50% to vote in favour of the deal.

A phat lump sum cash sweetener is usually used in this scenario to swing the vote,
and it will take the form of 2yrs worth of the allowances premiums upfront. (at least £1k for all, with TPM mech’ies & LGV/HGV quids in!!!!)

[sledger]

can royal mail be trusted over agreements,they have got history

[49erman]

Seems we have all got a little excited. The Narcissist in
Chief has updated workplace 15 mins ago basically saying we still need ACAS and that there will be no improved pay offer next week. Union have jumped the gun/misread the situation.

No point in guessing what’s gonna happen……….this says it all……

[Cucumber]

Seems we have all got a little excited. The Narcissist in
Chief has updated workplace 15 mins ago basically saying we still need ACAS and that there will be no improved pay offer next week. Union have jumped the gun/misread the situation.

I failed to see why Dave Ward was so chirpy earlier on.

[chickenwittle]

Seems we have all got a little excited. The Narcissist in
Chief has updated workplace 15 mins ago basically saying we still need ACAS and that there will be no improved pay offer next week. Union have jumped the gun/misread the situation.

I failed to see why Dave Ward was so chirpy earlier on.

Nobody wants to be seen to back down , maybe Royal Mail have made their best pay offer today already and of course they still want to go to Acas , don’t mean it will happen.

[Surreypostie]

I'm ok with banked hours so long as it works both ways, if someone is consistantly going over their time, they get the time back, can't be a one way street.

[Cucumber]

I'm ok with banked hours so long as it works both ways, if someone is consistantly going over their time, they get the time back, can't be a one way street.

Individual banked hours would be an impossible task for COMs to manage.

[Surreypostie]

I'm ok with banked hours so long as it works both ways, if someone is consistantly going over their time, they get the time back, can't be a one way street.

Individual banked hours would be an impossible task for COMs to manage.

I know. My COM told me, come in, take your breaks, go out on time, try numerous neighbours, as many as you need to to get shot of the parcel, do the job properly and there won't be any hours to annualise. Unfortunately, we have staff in our unit that think it is ok to go home at 10.30am while others extend.