Made to come in 40 minutes early to cover unpaid break

[Hitcher]

Just make sure you take all of your breaks and don't let someone you're working with tell you otherwise.

[tramssirhc]

New contracts are paid a net of whatever their contract is and are expected to work those same hours, be it 39, 37 or 40.

"Legacy" contract staff can deduct the meal relief entitlement from their contracted hours to ascertain net hours worked.

How that is dealt with, I would assume would be done at a local level.

It is wrong and should never have been allowed to happen, but that is where we are at present.

Its not. Its a question of what constitutes 'working time'. There is no deduction in the pre-22 contracts working time. Its a paid break.

[postslippete]

It's odd that RM says that recruitment is difficult and that it wants to attract and retain staff.

And then introduces arrangements like this which only highlights the two-tier workforce with 2 different contractual groups doing exactly the same job. It's hardly surprising that some new entrants question whether they've joined on the right terms.

Martin Walsh said on another thread that the long term aim should be a move towards a single status workforce. What he didn't say was how but considering how RM works they would probably prefer a move closer to the newer terms than legacy. One of the new entrants had me in stitches today. He said that in a few years' time people doing community service will be begging the courts not to send them to Royal Mail! Joking aside it only goes to show how far RM has fallen as an employer to what it used to be.

[A2B]

The new contracts already outnumber the old contracts in our office and sooner or later that will happen everywhere.

Terms and conditions are only going to head one way

[TopperGas]

It's odd that RM says that recruitment is difficult and that it wants to attract and retain staff.

And then introduces arrangements like this which only highlights the two-tier workforce with 2 different contractual groups doing exactly the same job. It's hardly surprising that some new entrants question whether they've joined on the right terms.

Martin Walsh said on another thread that the long term aim should be a move towards a single status workforce. What he didn't say was how but considering how RM works they would probably prefer a move closer to the newer terms than legacy. One of the new entrants had me in stitches today. He said that in a few years' time people doing community service will be begging the courts not to send them to Royal Mail! Joking aside it only goes to show how far RM has fallen as an employer to what it used to be.

It seems pretty obvious RM & the CWU will keep kicking the equalisation can down the road, they've already admitted the next review due on the 1 Spet will be missed, until there's equal numbers of legacy and new entrants and then introduce a new contract somewhere between the two contracts, with no paid breaks and the delivery supplement bought out and pay equalised, we're already moving to most FT staff now being on 37 hour contracts.

This is what happened in the two mergers I went through at a previous employer. There's no way everything will be bought up to the legacy contract level as it'll cost RM too much money to do it.

[tramssirhc]

Does anyone else do this? It doesn't make sense I think.

We've been upgraded to 37 hours, but have to come in 40 minutes early to get the 37 paid. If we come in at normal time we'd be paid 33 hours ONLY.

Does this sound right?

All on the new contract

Do you work longs and shorts or are you DM26?

[postslippete]

It's interesting that our boss keeps saying that we are short staffed and recruitment is difficult and yet they have largely stopped overtime.

If there are genuine vacancies, then there must be work that isn't being covered. So why aren't those hours being offered as overtime until new recruits are trained and in place?

Perhaps the managers are trying to stay within budget and/or deliberately holding hours back to fund DM26 which is due to go live in our office very soon. Perhaps they are under pressure to hit productivity targets. But one very plausible explanation is that RM believes that recruiting permanent staff on the newer contracts is cheaper in the long run than relying on overtime. It certainly feeds directly into Martin's "single status worker" and his little spiel on competing with the gig economy because it probably wouldn't be an upgrade for those on legacy contracts...

[tramssirhc]

It's odd that RM says that recruitment is difficult and that it wants to attract and retain staff.

And then introduces arrangements like this which only highlights the two-tier workforce with 2 different contractual groups doing exactly the same job. It's hardly surprising that some new entrants question whether they've joined on the right terms.

Martin Walsh said on another thread that the long term aim should be a move towards a single status workforce. What he didn't say was how but considering how RM works they would probably prefer a move closer to the newer terms than legacy. One of the new entrants had me in stitches today. He said that in a few years' time people doing community service will be begging the courts not to send them to Royal Mail! Joking aside it only goes to show how far RM has fallen as an employer to what it used to be.

The CWU has no policy for ensuring the post-22 contracts are receiving the wtr. How can post-22 contracts have any trust that anything will change when the CWU will not defend the wtr?

[menditsa]

For example if your paid hours are 08.00 to 15.30 and you take a total of 40 mins break your finish time to clock out is 16.10
Forget what legacy contracts do by clocking off 20 mins early at the end of their shift you can not on the new contract

This is where it f***s up when working with 2 diff contracts, would your partner wait 40 mins while you took your break ? No

[tramssirhc]

For example if your paid hours are 08.00 to 15.30 and you take a total of 40 mins break your finish time to clock out is 16.10
Forget what legacy contracts do by clocking off 20 mins early at the end of their shift you can not on the new contract

This is where it f***s up when working with 2 diff contracts, would your partner wait 40 mins while you took your break ? No

That's not what the wtr says. The minimum is a 20 minute break, which does not have to be paid during the working time. The question here is can the break be split into two if it exceeds 20 minutes and can part of it be at the end of the working time? Do other employers do this? Is it reasonable to make a contractual stipulation when the working time has finished?

[Hyrrokkin]

The new contracts already outnumber the old contracts in our office and sooner or later that will happen everywhere.

Terms and conditions are only going to head one way

All part of the big plan - we all know that RM want legacy contracts gone...it is now just a waiting game as to how long

[TopperGas]

It's interesting that our boss keeps saying that we are short staffed and recruitment is difficult and yet they have largely stopped overtime.

If there are genuine vacancies, then there must be work that isn't being covered. So why aren't those hours being offered as overtime until new recruits are trained and in place?

Perhaps the managers are trying to stay within budget and/or deliberately holding hours back to fund DM26 which is due to go live in our office very soon. Perhaps they are under pressure to hit productivity targets. But one very plausible explanation is that RM believes that recruiting permanent staff on the newer contracts is cheaper in the long run than relying on overtime. It certainly feeds directly into Martin's "single status worker" and his little spiel on competing with the gig economy because it probably wouldn't be an upgrade for those on legacy contracts...

Even if they'd sooner recruit new staff rather than pay OT that's not going to clear work sitting in a DO until they are recruited and in my DO that's impossible at the moment, as nobody wants to do the job on the pay RM is offering (or that's what our manager is claiming to be the case).

There is limited OT available to deliver Tracked parcels, so it looks like RM have just totally given up on delivering letters.

[tansorboy]

I cannot believe the new starters do not seem to know what their pay, terms and conditions are when they accept the job. And then get angry about it all when they start.

[SMS1969]

I cannot believe the new starters do not seem to know what their pay, terms and conditions are when they accept the job. And then get angry about it all when they start.

They get angry because they weren’t aware of the contracts that legacy are on, compared to their inferior pay, terms and conditions.

[TopperGas]

New starters have always been paid less, I can't recall I ever got "angry" when I found out I was earning less than the postie next to me, or he got 6 weeks holidays to my 4 weeks.