Outdoor Assistant Secretary Tony Bouch addresses the issue of rogue managers at Royal Mail acting outside the agreed terms of reference in relation to the USO pilot schemes.

[norris9]

If we all know how RM is run why is the CWU rep now following the Simon Thompson line of rogue managers being to blame?

As others have suggested the CWU seem to have just become part of the management, not a union listening and acting on its members concerns.

How long have the union been saying something along the lines of 'we are pushing Royal Mail to improve the culture within RM offices'....yet nothing changes.

Tony Bouch is doing it wrong. We NEED a flexible 'job and finish' setup to get rid of the toxic culture in delivery. IMO there's no other way to get rid of the toxicity.

You can't have arguments with management about what to deliver or what you haven't delivered if every day you have to complete. On the easier days - no lapsing - you can go home early. At Xmas - you stay out late. Double mail days should be stopped. If you come into double mail you get paid £30 more to clear. If you get double mail more than 5 times a year - it goes up to £70 extra to clear each day.

I will bang on about this forever. WE NEED JOB AND FINISH!

[Acca Dacca]

If we all know how RM is run why is the CWU rep now following the Simon Thompson line of rogue managers being to blame?

As others have suggested the CWU seem to have just become part of the management, not a union listening and acting on its members concerns.

How long have the union been saying something along the lines of 'we are pushing Royal Mail to improve the culture within RM offices'....yet nothing changes.

Tony Bouch is doing it wrong. We NEED a flexible 'job and finish' setup to get rid of the toxic culture in delivery. IMO there's no other way to get rid of the toxicity.

You can't have arguments with management about what to deliver or what you haven't delivered if every day you have to complete. On the easier days - no lapsing - you can go home early. At Xmas - you stay out late. Double mail days should be stopped. If you come into double mail you get paid £30 more to clear. If you get double mail more than 5 times a year - it goes up to £70 extra to clear each day.

I will bang on about this forever. WE NEED JOB AND FINISH!

You need to stop banging on about job and finish

Its never going back to the way it was in its old form - any concept of job and finish in the future would be ''commit to deliver''

And if you think things are toxic now with a bullying culture? You havent seen anything like how it would be like if you never had the option to just work your hours

We would literally be bullied into completing the unmanageable workloads every day without recourse

And for a postie that posts a lot on here about struggling with the physical demands of the job - I really dont understand why you would want this

[HTPostman]

Job and finish is only manageable if rounds are achievable, which we know they aren’t. And few people with money got there by being nice - why would CEOs agree to an extra £30 for double mail, £70 if it’s happened 5 times a year?! That’s a cost of millions of pounds, for no actual return.

My own crazy proposal (which would be amusing to watch each morning) is everyone to be trained and therefore expected to do each role at a DO; postal worker, union, manager. Actual role would be handed out each morning.

For a start no need for managers (that can be handled from afar/central), you’d simply have team leaders. Postal workers would obviously remain. And everyone would be trained on company/union agreements so no need for day release for union.

Each morning, you’d be given one of the roles. Managers who previously spent all morning playing candy crush and eating donuts can now expect to strap on a postbag and crack on with a 13 mile delivery. Walsh and co can join them.

[Woody Guthrie]

There is actually some traction in returning to job and finish amongst management but the union wouldn't be keen.

There is something in the fact that encouraging performance in a low paid job requires some kind of incentive otherwise everyone simply does the bare minimum. When it's difficult even to put any kind of measure on what that bare minimum is without walking through a minefield of individual ability, age and disability discrimination that minimum can start to creep backwards.

What has become obvious with the new terms and conditions and how close we're getting to minimum wage is that the big stick attitude no longer works, people just keep leaving especially amongst the new starts.

Financial incentives are difficult to manage fairly and would have to first ensure workload was fair and balanced and any incentive was equally achievable in any function in any area of the country and I don't hold out much hope for that.

[Alfietherat]

The usual suspects straight on to put the boot into the CWU , boring.

In fairness the CWU deserve it. It's an awful organisation.

Yeah, let’s all pull our subs and chuck the union. We don’t need a union. RM are are great employer, the CWU are holding us back. Without them we could be living a life of luxury with, dare I dream, commit to deliver, unpaid breaks, no representation, imposed pay rises, I could go on, but alas, the CWU are the ones preventing this utopia from happening

Exactly.
Never understood the constant bashing of an organisation thats sole existence is to make our working life better.
You can have opinions on their direction of travel of whether they are dealing with certain issues well enough but the way some on here speak about them you would think they were the enemy within.
Bizarre. If you hate them that much leave the union and be done with it.

It's classic trait of CWU loyalists to conflate critism with treachery. Only those not on the bag could consider the CWU a useful entity at the moment.

Criticism about elements of their effectiveness is different to just attacking the whole organisation at any opportunity.
Calling them an awful organisation suggest they are bad to the core.
If you are still in the union them why?
Why would you pay for something that you despise so much.

It is bad to the core. No representative should be sitting back and letting this happen. No one is saying no. The members, the reps, the branches. That's how bad the rot is.

Saying it's rotten to the core is strong.
Allot of reps are trying their best to serve the interest of it's members.
Its hard to get a grip of all these offices at once if they are being instructed to manage a certain way.
I agree it probably is a decision pushed from senior management to local managers.
Local managers don't need the grief of managing on the shop floor, but will do as they are instructed.

If you were a rep would you simply go along with whatever was going on? I wouldn't. I fully understand the reps are poorly trained and do not get trained to be industrially and politically independent. But ignorance is not an excuse. The workplace reps need to say enough is enough and take the area and div reps on. I understand its not easy as the branch will close ranks but I'd sooner fight them than be on my knees.

And that’s why so many local reps resign. It really is a thankless role.

[Perseus]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

[ted_e_bear]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

[tramssirhc]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

Singleton duties remain unaffected. Going out everyday. Whilst the CDV pairings get hammered. Only with the CWU.

[Woody Guthrie]

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

At the moment the position would be that rurals and firms would be out of scope for the first 12 months or until such time as a full office revision is implemented however like everything else that will be subject to the outputs of the trial sites.

This will create a dilemma for those duties though because as they will not see any increase in workload they will not as it stands between able to move onto the proposed new attendance patterns unless there was a proportional increase in their delivery span. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

[Londonsburning]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

It's utterly embarrassing innit. Blatant favouritism is rife in this shitty job.

[Mr Rush]

It was RM that coined the rogue manager spiel originally years ago. They know what they're doing and now the CWU are toeing the line like the good little lapdogs they have become unfortunately.

'Rogue Managers' was the company's excuse during the parliamentary enquiry for the instances of proof arising of the prioritisation of Tracked. I seem to recall the union, along with everyone else, scoffed at that. But they're real now!

[Londonsburning]

It was RM that coined the rogue manager spiel originally years ago. They know what they're doing and now the CWU are toeing the line like the good little lapdogs they have become unfortunately.

'Rogue Managers' was the company's excuse during the parliamentary enquiry for the instances of proof arising of the prioritisation of Tracked. I seem to recall the union, along with everyone else, scoffed at that. But they're real now!

They have always been real Mr Rush, the word rogue is misleading as I would estimate about 90% of managers are and always have been. It's been a requirement for the job for as long as I can remember.

[Pidleypoo]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

I thought Martin Walsh said on his YouTube video from a couple of days ago that when this comes in , every office will have to have a repick ?

[Mickeybrowneyes]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

I thought Martin Walsh said on his YouTube video from a couple of days ago that when this comes in , every office will have to have a repick ?

I think you are going to have to.
How is it going to work otherwise. Passengers will be moved off their walk every other day.
Singletons different but if the letters barring 1st class aren't going out daily will they have workload to justify a day's work. I doubt it.

[Woody Guthrie]

I think people are rightly getting annoyed/past the point of caring to be constantly told that something that they know about is happening, is getting raised higher/fixed/stopped only to go back to square one.
It's draining.

Tell me about it, quite a few at our place hoping the only positive about the upcoming changes is a full office rehash to get the duties more equal even if it is equally s**t but oh no our manager already saying some will just stay on their piss easy singletons no need for a repick or anything

I thought Martin Walsh said on his YouTube video from a couple of days ago that when this comes in , every office will have to have a repick ?

Duties unaffected by major change would not necessarily be included in any repick.