Unite Expresses Concern at Royal Mail IT Redundancies

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=821084

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - Feb. 14, 2008) -

Attention: News, Industrial and Business Editors

Unite the union, which represents management employees working in Royal Mail Group, has today expressed concern at the company's formal announcement of reductions in its IT division.

Unite understood from informal discussions that there would be no redundancies as a result of Royal Mail's IT re-organisation. Having received the formal notification of possible redundancies, the union is extremely concerned the redundancies could equal 40% (80 people) of the current union members working in Royal Mail's IT section.

Brian Scott, Assistant National Secretary for the CMA Sector of Unite said,

"We have written to the company to request an urgent meeting at the highest possible level.

The potential number of redundancies is unacceptable to us and we will be looking to reduce this dramatically. The approach adopted by Royal Mail is unacceptable. The situation is compounded by the company withdrawing from our redundancy collective agreement some time ago and the terms they have been offering our members recently, on a voluntary basis, are not good enough."

Paul Reuter, National officer said

"Royal Mail must learn to approach change in an appropriate and professional manner. Their track record of implementing change is poor and this is another example of their failure to involve the union in a proper and timely manner."

[DGP1]

Unite understood from informal discussions that there would be no redundancies as a result of Royal Mail's IT re-organisation. Having received the formal notification of possible redundancies, the union is extremely concerned the redundancies could equal 40% (80 people) of the current union members working in Royal Mail's IT section.

Now they understand how we feel whenever we get lied to, a nice case of karma

[sevenandseven]

Strange that they should be considering redundancies in the IT dept while another story on here 'Royal Mail plans mobile working for 130,000' appeared yesterday. Won't they need an in house IT dept to help co-ordinate this new technology? Or is it another case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing? Outsourcing to a private company anyone?

[Fluke]

Best news I've heard in along time! Now they know how we feel, the bunch of strike breakers.

[F0zziebear]

Royal Mail has been reviewing it's non-operational department for a few years. The IT department is the latest one to go through a transformational change. This means cost reductions of at least 25% per department. It has been known for sometime that non-operational departments are too big for a company which is and will keep shrinking.

The in-house It department involves a number of things, but was and is too big for what it does. This over-bloated size has created bureaucracy purely by default. IT in RoyalMail has been behind the times for a long time. A new director has come in and their main job would be to get it organised properly to be able to implement such things as making the 130,000 frontline staff truly mobile (90,000 posties).

As for being strike breakers. This is an interesting one. I personally don't see on what grounds you think they are.

Secondly, saying it's about time they got what was coming is also unfair. Non-operations in RoyalMail has shrunk dramatically. In fact I could quite easily argue that they have shrunk more as a percentage of their overall size than frontline departments.

Think before you comment in future

F0zz

[DGP1]

Royal Mail has been reviewing it's non-operational department for a few years. The IT department is the latest one to go through a transformational change. This means cost reductions of at least 25% per department. It has been known for sometime that non-operational departments are too big for a company which is and will keep shrinking.

The in-house It department involves a number of things, but was and is too big for what it does. This over-bloated size has created bureaucracy purely by default. IT in RoyalMail has been behind the times for a long time. A new director has come in and their main job would be to get it organised properly to be able to implement such things as making the 130,000 frontline staff truly mobile (90,000 posties).

As for being strike breakers. This is an interesting one. I personally don't see on what grounds you think they are.

Secondly, saying it's about time they got what was coming is also unfair. Non-operations in RoyalMail has shrunk dramatically. In fact I could quite easily argue that they have shrunk more as a percentage of their overall size than frontline departments.

Think before you comment in future

F0zz

For an organisation the size of RM an IT department of 200 would not be considered large.

[DirtyHarry]

For an organisation the size of RM an IT department of 200 would not be considered large.

It does to the pygmies in charge, mate.

[dvbuk55]

Much of the IT work for RM is outsourced anyway - when a machine required an upgrade some bloke turned up with a laptop a briefcase a disc and several hours to spare.

They'd be better off spending some dosh on upgraded hardware, which is leased and increasing the units per office and sorting out the infrastructure.

[Stormproof]

What goes around comes around

[k979aaa]

This is classic example of doing yourself out of a job and thousand of other's ie us for they do not care about us so why should we for them i guess they have found the (It) in s*IT.

[Fluke]

Royal Mail has been reviewing it's non-operational department for a few years. The IT department is the latest one to go through a transformational change. This means cost reductions of at least 25% per department. It has been known for sometime that non-operational departments are too big for a company which is and will keep shrinking.

The in-house It department involves a number of things, but was and is too big for what it does. This over-bloated size has created bureaucracy purely by default. IT in RoyalMail has been behind the times for a long time. A new director has come in and their main job would be to get it organised properly to be able to implement such things as making the 130,000 frontline staff truly mobile (90,000 posties).

As for being strike breakers. This is an interesting one. I personally don't see on what grounds you think they are.

Secondly, saying it's about time they got what was coming is also unfair. Non-operations in RoyalMail has shrunk dramatically. In fact I could quite easily argue that they have shrunk more as a percentage of their overall size than frontline departments.

Think before you comment in future

F0zz

Thanks for the heads up. Unite/CMA as a union are a joke, and by the very nature that their members crossed our picket lines makes them strike breakers in my book. At our last AGM we had a pensions brief and were told by one of the trustees that at this very moment Unite/CMA members are waiting to see if the CWU get a better deal and if we do they will want in on our success. They were quick enough not to offer support over pensions during the recent IA.

Your personal oppions are just that, and I'm entitled to mine, so I don't need you to tell me when to think or comment! If you have a soft spot for them fine, I dont have aproblem with that, but I still think that Unite as a so called union are a disgrace, and if their members cross picket lines and do our work then they are strike breakers. Some of the so call IT people worked their day off along with 194 other managers at Burslem during that IA, and as others have said what goes around comes around.

[mailsort6]

I think that managers (admin, operational, etc), are just walking around with their heads buried in the sand, of course they will be made redundant, they are not exactly the core of RM, the posties are. I can bet you TNT, UK Mail and DHL do not have a high turnover of managers, admin staff, etc, therefore, saving the company alot of money.

[weetrogg]

SCAB- someone who performs work of an other striking worker, so in my book they were scabbing, but we must remember there is a difference between your manager and admin scabbing, and the sly dirty bastard working next to you who came in and worked and then quite happily took the benefits that the I/A acheived. Flexibility is just another form of team working and the implications of it are that most line managers in delivery will be surplus to requirements within the next 12 months or so, and a large proportion of work area managers in MCs will also be surplus, maybe this is how there going to cover summer staffing, when they announced the NW mail centre, it was funny to see them look like startled rabbits cos they know if our office closed the staff would be dispersed around all local offices, but they also know that all local offices are already got there full quota of idiots to stand about doing nothing ,so the options would be to take vr of rejoin the frontline workforce, Its inevitable that now RM has fought the CWU in a bitter dispute an got a lot of what they wanted, the next attacks will be management and the CMA, it would give me great pleasure to see this happen, for once in my life id be tempted to cross a picket line






WE are the union

[Fluke]

Having spoken to several managers, (they aint all bad) a lot of the surplice mangers being shipped into places like Burslem and other disputes were admin staff volunteering to help out. A few managers in my place even used Burslem to make a few extra quid, by working their days off down there. If that aint scabbing I don't know what is.

[L Tommo]

Oh well.... Never mind....


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