Martin Walsh DGSP:A message to new entrants in Royal Mail Group

[Barnacle]

All our new contacts were told they must take their break or they'd be docked 20 mins pay..

An idle threat, no more, no less.

They enforced it at my DO for us on 6 hour contracts to take a 30 min break for ages.

Now we just do our 6 hours not 6 hours 30 mins.

This is why there has to be a national agreement. Then no one is shafted and everyone knows what the procedure is and can refer to it.

[claretandblue]

Female new starter at ours was told at interview that the job was "family friendly", she's soon found out that they lied to her.

[Thommo44]

Every single new entrant in ours takes a 20 minute break alongside their van share partner. I've no idea if management claw it back somehow.

Ours were told this week they must clock out 20 mins after the legacy contract staff, even if it means just sitting around for 20 mins!!

Ludicrous.

They are entitled to an unpaid 20 minute break but they can’t be forced to take one.

They could work their 6 hour shift and not take one.

This has been answered on another thread ( the legal part of it )

Ours have been told that they can’t NOT take the break because they gave to take a break by law.

“Entitled" to a break or have a “right" to a break is uk law. As it is unpaid the company cannot force you to take one.

So if they choose not to take a break, that’s it? They can’t be made to come in early?

Not if you are on a 6 hour or less contract. The law is quite clear that working ‘more’ than 6 hours then your company can force you to take a break for health and safety reasons… but if thats the case then it must be in the middle of your shift and not at the beginning or end of your shift.

Why must it be in the middle?
The law, H&S 1974, welfare regulations only states that a break should be taken, no specifics, the regulations also state that toilet and washing facilities, somewhere to prepare hot or cold food and drink should also be provided, (I have no issue returning to the office for my break but it is a 15 minute journey in both directions)

[kazardaimenu]

Female new starter at ours was told at interview that the job was "family friendly", she's soon found out that they lied to her.

Someone tell her to bring a load back at her finish time and not worry about it.

[SkiSunday]

Female new starter at ours was told at interview that the job was "family friendly", she's soon found out that they lied to her.

Someone tell her to bring a load back at her finish time and not worry about it.

It's a shame that new starts and legacy staff alike are bullied into working over their time (in Delivery only!)
At the end of the day delivery colleagues need to realise we are all but a number, on a spreadsheet, to be abused by management, for their very personal and very handsome bonus payments.

[kazardaimenu]

Exactly that’s all it is, no bonus for us and no incentive to stay out for hours. If the managers really want it they can mop up.

[Mr Rush]

was "family friendly"

But that's true! It was

[TopperGas]

MW is suggesting again on FB the first changes will be introduced in September, as that's now less than a month away why can't the CWU say what the changes will be?

[Patmanposts]

Every single new entrant in ours takes a 20 minute break alongside their van share partner. I've no idea if management claw it back somehow.

Ours were told this week they must clock out 20 mins after the legacy contract staff, even if it means just sitting around for 20 mins!!

Ludicrous.

They are entitled to an unpaid 20 minute break but they can’t be forced to take one.

They could work their 6 hour shift and not take one.

This has been answered on another thread ( the legal part of it )

Ours have been told that they can’t NOT take the break because they gave to take a break by law.

“Entitled" to a break or have a “right" to a break is uk law. As it is unpaid the company cannot force you to take one.

So if they choose not to take a break, that’s it? They can’t be made to come in early?

Not if you are on a 6 hour or less contract. The law is quite clear that working ‘more’ than 6 hours then your company can force you to take a break for health and safety reasons… but if thats the case then it must be in the middle of your shift and not at the beginning or end of your shift.

Why must it be in the middle?
The law, H&S 1974, welfare regulations only states that a break should be taken, no specifics, the regulations also state that toilet and washing facilities, somewhere to prepare hot or cold food and drink should also be provided, (I have no issue returning to the office for my break but it is a 15 minute journey in both directions)

From a quick search it’s on numerous guidance sheets and the Working time regulations 1998. I was in the RMT for 20 years and it was a national agreement too. A break is not a break from work at the beginning or end of a shift because work has either just begun or finished. It also stops bad management from taking the pee from their bad planning.

[menditsa]

From a quick search it’s on numerous guidance sheets and the Working time regulations 1998. I was in the RMT for 20 years and it was a national agreement too. A break is not a break from work at the beginning or end of a shift because work has either just begun or finished. It also stops bad management from taking the pee from their bad planning.

What you have to remember is when 2 posties go out in a van they are both classed as Mobile Workers under WTR regs, someone who only works inside and never goes out in a company van is classed as non Mobile Worker as both roles have very different definitions regarding breaks,working hours and daily rest periods.

[gypu1999]

You have to wonder why he hasnt mentioned what the first step would be yet… Must be waiting for the ballot to be over

[postslippete]

If you are a new entrant, MW's words might sound like that you will be equalised by December this year but the actual wording of what he said leaves a lot of wiggle room for delay and partial fixes. Whatever the "first touch" is isn't likely to cost RM that much and the overall pay rise will be used to justify it. Agreeing the whole plan within 6 months is also not an implementation of anything but an agreement about what will happen which could still be phased over years depending on cost or management stalling.

This is what will likely happen. EP Group will drip-feed these changes over a longer period using affordability and business profitability as excuses

[TopperGas]

If you are a new entrant, MW's words might sound like that you will be equalised by December this year but the actual wording of what he said leaves a lot of wiggle room for delay and partial fixes. Whatever the "first touch" is isn't likely to cost RM that much and the overall pay rise will be used to justify it. Agreeing the whole plan within 6 months is also not an implementation of anything but an agreement about what will happen which could still be phased over years depending on cost or management stalling.

This is what will likely happen. EP Group will drip-feed these changes over a longer period using affordability and business profitability as excuses

I doubt any new entrant expects to have the same pay & T&C's as a legacy worker within 6 months?

[Scointer]

As said elsewhere I would expect the first step to be paid meal breaks because that doesn’t actually cost anything in extra wages just productivity (in theory it makes the pay per hour higher but doesn’t effect the take home pay for anyone just the hours worked).
The other steps have already said they want equalisation to be within about three years (some of us have already been on these terms for over 2 1/2 years and they won’t backdate anything). So other steps will be spread over three years service with the second step expected to be the reduction from 40 to 37 hours but this will increase some people’s take home pay as it makes the per hour rate higher so part time staff will keep the same hours but get an increase in their take home pay.
Anything above these have been very well hidden, the delivery supplement has been mentioned and London weighting but no real details but the mandatory Sunday working on base pay rate and monthly pay date hasn’t been spoken about at all so don’t expect any change in them and therefore not FULL equalisation.

[Scointer]

So Martin says he doesn’t accept they have let down new entrants because the agreement is the first step is timetabled, in the part one agreement, within 3 months of the transaction and EP only became the new owners on 2nd June.
Well we are now on 3rd September and not a hint of the first step… so will Martin and the CWU now agree new entrants have been let down and the part one agreement has already been torn up.