Coming back?

[Daventrydave]

Resign 3 weeks ago for a diff job. Isn't working out. Had 20 odd years in. If I go back how bad would the new contract be? I've made a mistake.

[Barnacle]

Resign 3 weeks ago for a diff job. Isn't working out. Had 20 odd years in. If I go back how bad would the new contract be? I've made a mistake.

You’ll have to agree to work a Sunday. That’s a cert.

Are you sure they’d make you start again from scratch?

[TopperGas]

Resign 3 weeks ago for a diff job. Isn't working out. Had 20 odd years in. If I go back how bad would the new contract be? I've made a mistake.

You’ll have to agree to work a Sunday. That’s a cert.

Are you sure they’d make you start again from scratch?

It could well depend on how desperate they are for staff?

[R5001]

I know of a few that have returned, though I don't think in such a short turnaround. It's not as good, but, if you are already innoculated againsts the typical bullshit that crops up nowadays, I think you can avoid too much of of a decline in job vs money vs sanity. You already know how to cut-off, how to deal with crap managers, the specifics of many rules etc...

[Smoothbackground]

Go speak to your old managers and see what can be worked out - you won’t know unless you ask. Hope you get it sorted :-)

[Sam White]

I left and it took 6 months to come back. I had to wait for branch recruitment and apply just like anyone else.
I'm contracted to work Sunday's, don't get paid breaks, don't get paid delivery supplement, get £1.11 less per hour than others, lost all seniority, get 1 Saturday in 6 off, working 4 day week jobs 5 days a week mainly 2 day's worth of mail every day. It's just under £7500 loss per annum.

[Smoothbackground]

I left and it took 6 months to come back. I had to wait for branch recruitment and apply just like anyone else.
I'm contracted to work Sunday's, don't get paid breaks, don't get paid delivery supplement, get £1.11 less per hour than others, lost all seniority, get 1 Saturday in 6 off, working 4 day week jobs 5 days a week mainly 2 day's worth of mail every day. It's just under £7500 loss per annum.

So you’re £144 each week worse off for doing exactly the same contractual hours as you did on a legacy contract? Can you break your £7.5k figure down for us in a bit more detail? I’m assuming you’re on a 40-hour contract for the figure to be so high.

Maybe I’m wrong, but Is your calculation of your “loss” being £7.5k because you’re thinking if you had stayed on the old contract you would be getting Sunday premium? If so, that is a big red herring — company policy, at least in our region, is that hardly anyone on a legacy contract gets Sunday OT - it is all us newbies.

[Sam White]

Sorry I did get my calculations slightly wrong in my previous post, but this should be the correct breakdown.
Based on covering a full time (37 hours) 4 day week job, but working it 5 days a week paid at an hourly rate of £13.65;
3 hours and 50 minutes break £52.32
Weekly delivery supplement £29.35
Hourly rate difference £1.11 (as I'm paid £12.54 per hour) £41.07
Weekly total £122.74
Annually £6382.48
Not including overtime or working Sunday at flat rate - not premium.
I'm on a 33 hour contract as this is the new full time contact because we don't get paid breaks.

[Valentina@1]

I left and it took 6 months to come back. I had to wait for branch recruitment and apply just like anyone else.
I'm contracted to work Sunday's, don't get paid breaks, don't get paid delivery supplement, get £1.11 less per hour than others, lost all seniority, get 1 Saturday in 6 off, working 4 day week jobs 5 days a week mainly 2 day's worth of mail every day. It's just under £7500 loss per annum.

So you’re £144 each week worse off for doing exactly the same contractual hours as you did on a legacy contract? Can you break your £7.5k figure down for us in a bit more detail? I’m assuming you’re on a 40-hour contract for the figure to be so high.

Maybe I’m wrong, but Is your calculation of your “loss” being £7.5k because you’re thinking if you had stayed on the old contract you would be getting Sunday premium? If so, that is a big red herring — company policy, at least in our region, is that hardly anyone on a legacy contract gets Sunday OT - it is all us newbies.

“Us newbies” ….a newbie that knows everything about the job.

[Smoothbackground]

I left and it took 6 months to come back. I had to wait for branch recruitment and apply just like anyone else.
I'm contracted to work Sunday's, don't get paid breaks, don't get paid delivery supplement, get £1.11 less per hour than others, lost all seniority, get 1 Saturday in 6 off, working 4 day week jobs 5 days a week mainly 2 day's worth of mail every day. It's just under £7500 loss per annum.

So you’re £144 each week worse off for doing exactly the same contractual hours as you did on a legacy contract? Can you break your £7.5k figure down for us in a bit more detail? I’m assuming you’re on a 40-hour contract for the figure to be so high.

Maybe I’m wrong, but Is your calculation of your “loss” being £7.5k because you’re thinking if you had stayed on the old contract you would be getting Sunday premium? If so, that is a big red herring — company policy, at least in our region, is that hardly anyone on a legacy contract gets Sunday OT - it is all us newbies.

“Us newbies” ….a newbie that knows everything about the job.

No, I don’t know everything - hence asking the OP questions. Other than a snide remark did you have anything sensible or worthwhile to contribute? If not, toddle off somewhere else, chum.

[Smoothbackground]

Sorry I did get my calculations slightly wrong in my previous post, but this should be the correct breakdown.
Based on covering a full time (37 hours) 4 day week job, but working it 5 days a week paid at an hourly rate of £13.65;
3 hours and 50 minutes break £52.32
Weekly delivery supplement £29.35
Hourly rate difference £1.11 (as I'm paid £12.54 per hour) £41.07
Weekly total £122.74
Annually £6382.48
Not including overtime or working Sunday at flat rate - not premium.
I'm on a 33 hour contract as this is the new full time contact because we don't get paid breaks.

Thanks for clarifying your calcs.

So if you’re on a 33-hr new-style contract worked over five days, your gross pay each week will be in the region of £413.82. On a old-style contract it would be £479.80 (inc delivery supplement). That’s a difference of £65.98 each week or £3,430.96 annually).

I think the premise of your calculations is wrong as you are comparing apples with pears, e.g. break times, contract pay, etc. If you are on a 33-hour contract then you are paid for 33 hours. The difference between you and a colleague on an old contract is you are at work for longer than 33 hours, (As an example, I’m on a 40-hour “new” full time contract and am paid for 40 hours each week, yet RM expect me to be physically present for 41 hrs 40 mins to take account of my breaks. In other words, they don’t deduct the breaks from my 40 hours of pay.)

Yes, there are contra arguments about the oldtimer postie doing only 29 hours of work versus your 33 hours as his breaks are paid and included in his contractual hours, but that’s not worth getting het up over. Instead, come to an arrangement with the gaffers so you save YOUR break (or a large chunk of it) for the end of your shift so you can leave “early”. The legal right to a break is yours. As it is unpaid, you call the shots.

[Smoothbackground]

Are you only allowed a 20 minute break on your 8 hour 20 minute, evening work shift? Delivering DPRs in the dark? For £12.57per hour, on most Saturdays and Sundays of the year? Ooft that sounds like a mugs game. I think I'd rather work for Amazon!

No, the “allowance” is 40 minutes, but I prefer to knock 20 minutes off the end of my shift.

Just some points of clarification lest you were inferring I am a mug:

(1) My own hourly rate is £14.87.
(2) I work 8.00 am to 4.20 pm, though on a Sunday I do 6.50 am to 3.10 pm. Dark nights are a no-no! If I do overtime - which I do often - I get £18.59 for each and every hour I do. That’s considerably more than the OT rate for those on legacy contracts. Overtime on a legacy contract might well be considered a mug’s game! I have just bought a three-year-old car outright just with my overtime for nine months.
(3) Saturdays and Sundays are the easiest days of the week. Sundays at our place are literally like a party. I know cynics like you won’t believe it, but there is a queue of people desperate to work Sundays. The Sunday party is an elite club, and if your name’s not on the list then you’re not getting in! Seriously, we are fighting hard against them bringing in a rota for the Sundays as we all enjoy working Sundays. We have enough of us now that we could realistically work only 1 in 6 Sundays, but who wants to do a hard Thursday instead?! Nah, you do the heavy packets on Thursday while I have my feet up at home, and in return I’ll plump for the light and postable LATs on Sunday!
(4) Conversely, for Amazon DSP drivers — and I was one in a past life — Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days of the week; your van hire comes off the day rate; you have fuel, vehicle damage costs; you will likely be put on “standby” at short notice (ie no work and no pay); you have no holiday pay, no pension, etc…. Yes, on paper you might invoice over £1k a week if you’re lucky enough to get five days’ work but by the time you pay your expenses you’re left with little. Even in your own van it’s not much better than this. Working for Royal Mail in comparison feels like the lap of luxury, I promise you.

To any potential new colleagues reading this who are thinking of joining Royal Mail — I say go for it. Be under no illusion that the new contract is inferior to the old contract, but it is still very, very decent — and perhaps the best on offer in the job market— for employed delivery work. For doing six days a week, ie working one rest day as overtime, plus a couple of hours of “pressure overtime” here and there,I’m currently clearing after tax and NI just shy of £2.8k each month. That’s over £40k before tax. There are no delivery jobs out there offering permanent employment with this kind of pay and benefits - they all want you to be self-employed. No other employer will contribute 13.5% of your salary to a pension, topping up your 6% pension contributions to 19.5%. The job definitely isn’t for everyone — but no job is.

[Barnacle]

Are you only allowed a 20 minute break on your 8 hour 20 minute, evening work shift? Delivering DPRs in the dark? For £12.57per hour, on most Saturdays and Sundays of the year? Ooft that sounds like a mugs game. I think I'd rather work for Amazon!

No, the “allowance” is 40 minutes, but I prefer to knock 20 minutes off the end of my shift.

Just some points of clarification lest you were inferring I am a mug:

(1) My own hourly rate is £14.87.
(2) I work 8.00 am to 4.20 pm, though on a Sunday I do 6.50 am to 3.10 pm. Dark nights are a no-no! If I do overtime - which I do often - I get £18.59 for each and every hour I do. That’s considerably more than the OT rate for those on legacy contracts. Overtime on a legacy contract might well be considered a mug’s game! I have just bought a three-year-old car outright just with my overtime for nine months.
(3) Saturdays and Sundays are the easiest days of the week. Sundays at our place are literally like a party. I know cynics like you won’t believe it, but there is a queue of people desperate to work Sundays. The Sunday party is an elite club, and if your name’s not on the list then you’re not getting in! Seriously, we are fighting hard against them bringing in a rota for the Sundays as we all enjoy working Sundays. We have enough of us now that we could realistically work only 1 in 6 Sundays, but who wants to do a hard Thursday instead?! Nah, you do the heavy packets on Thursday while I have my feet up at home, and in return I’ll plump for the light and postable LATs on Sunday!
(4) Conversely, for Amazon DSP drivers — and I was one in a past life — Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days of the week; your van hire comes off the day rate; you have fuel, vehicle damage costs; you will likely be put on “standby” at short notice (ie no work and no pay); you have no holiday pay, no pension, etc…. Yes, on paper you might invoice over £1k a week if you’re lucky enough to get five days’ work but by the time you pay your expenses you’re left with little. Even in your own van it’s not much better than this. Working for Royal Mail in comparison feels like the lap of luxury, I promise you.

To any potential new colleagues reading this who are thinking of joining Royal Mail — I say go for it. Be under no illusion that the new contract is inferior to the old contract, but it is still very, very decent — and perhaps the best on offer in the job market— for employed delivery work. For doing six days a week, ie working one rest day as overtime, plus a couple of hours of “pressure overtime” here and there,I’m currently clearing after tax and NI just shy of £2.8k each month. That’s over £40k before tax. There are no delivery jobs out there offering permanent employment with this kind of pay and benefits - they all want you to be self-employed. No other employer will contribute 13.5% of your salary to a pension, topping up your 6% pension contributions to 19.5%. The job definitely isn’t for everyone — but no job is.

Why is your hourly rate £14.87? That’s not a Royal Mail hourly rate so are you adding everything in and then dividing it by your hours?

[Smoothbackground]

£14.87 is the Royal Mail DPR postie hourly rate for depots in the South East, though I know it is lower (£12.54 ph) elsewhere.

To deliver on our ambition we want the best and that’s why we’re delighted to offer market leading pay and benefits for our sector. For bringing your best and serving our customers with pride, you can expect to receive:

• Pay that’s 10% above the market average in our sector, paid monthly with an hourly rate of £14.87p/hr
• Overtime 1.25x the normal hourly rate
• 22.5 days holiday, rising with length of service (pro-rata)
• Contributory pension scheme
• Lots of opportunity to develop a career
• Full uniform provided if you’re on a contract of longer than three months
• Excellent parental leave policy
• Various discounts including high street vouchers, travel and attraction discounts, and savings on beauty products and gym membership
• Car parking available
• Cycle storage available
• Self staff kitchen available

[fb1969]

I've randomly searched for jobs on the RM site. An office in London (SW postcode) gets £14.87 but an office in North Kent (ME), one in Woking (GU) one in Dorking (RH) and one in Margate (CT) only get the standard £12.54.

The office I worked in was in the south east (one of the postcode areas I've mentioned) and older contracts get an RRIS payment due to the area. But new contracts only get the standard £12.54.

It looks like £14.87 is the London rate and may only apply to an office with a London postcode. I am not expecting smoothbackground to reveal the postcode of their office, but £14.87 an hour is the exception rather than the rule.