Saturday 27th December

Post by **Lounge Lizard** » 19 Nov 2008, 20:01

This will only be my third Christmas with Royal Mail, so can someone tell me whether Saturday 27th December 2003 was a narmal working day, and if it was was it busy?

legind · Post by **legind** » 20 Nov 2008, 00:42

No it was not I've been here 25yrs and this is the first time I can remember working the Saturday after Boxing Day

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 20 Nov 2008, 08:57

Even RM are thinking its going to be quiet - on average we process 80,000,000 per day UK wide they are estimating that we will process 13,000,000 approximately 16% of an average days work.

But do you believe everything RM tell you.

Post by **Lounge Lizard** » 20 Nov 2008, 17:02

legind wrote:No it was not I've been here 25yrs and this is the first time I can remember working the Saturday after Boxing Day

But if it is custom and practice NOT to work on Saturday 27th December then surely this year we will be qorking an extra day for NO extra pay.

saga · Post by **saga** » 20 Nov 2008, 19:50

Remember, it will just be a normal Saturday, so no mailsort 3 to be done.

LDV 350 · Post by **LDV 350** » 21 Nov 2008, 15:08

We will be hammered our office operates a clear office policy everything thats in goes out, does anyone really believe we will be quiet that day? i wouldn't be surprised if there are bulk mailings contracted for the 27th

Spedley · Post by **Spedley** » 21 Nov 2008, 19:14

I rememeber a couple of years ago they just gave us the day off.

I expect they will do the same this year, why else wouldn't you let anyone book the day off as annual leave?

staffordtigers · Post by **staffordtigers** » 21 Nov 2008, 20:06

Spedley wrote:I rememeber a couple of years ago they just gave us the day off.

I expect they will do the same this year, why else wouldn't you let anyone book the day off as annual leave?

Cant remember that & this is my 14th year, sure you not getting mixed up with Diana's funeral?

Post by **Lounge Lizard** » 21 Nov 2008, 22:03

staffordtigers wrote:
Spedley wrote:I rememeber a couple of years ago they just gave us the day off.

I expect they will do the same this year, why else wouldn't you let anyone book the day off as annual leave?
Cant remember that & this is my 14th year, sure you not getting mixed up with Diana's funeral?

So if the security services murder Camilla and her funeral is on Saturday 27th December then we can all be off that day.

Spedley · Post by **Spedley** » 22 Nov 2008, 00:45

Going by my callender it must have been 2003. I didn't think it was that long ago but it definately happened (at least in our office :) )

Post by **Carnoustie** » 22 Nov 2008, 11:54

I was on a Tuesday-Saturday duty in 2003, and in processing, we went in as normal on Sat December 27th. About a week later, we were told that it had been declared as a 'non-service day' by Postcomm, and that we should in fact have had the day off. So all of us that were affected by the ruling (only 5 or 6 people) got credited back a day's leave

Post by **riverdale** » 24 Nov 2008, 15:00

I've got 22yrs in and last time the 27th fell on a Sat, we all worked an extra hour in the week and had the day off.
This year I can't even book a days annual for that day,not allowed DIM said,although its never been a problem in the past.
Have never worked the days after xmas always booked annual.
This year f**k nose whats going on!!

Post by **dvbuk55** » 24 Nov 2008, 16:16

riverdale wrote:I've got 22yrs in and last time the 27th fell on a Sat, we all worked an extra hour in the week and had the day off.
This year I can't even book a days annual for that day,not allowed DIM said,although its never been a problem in the past.
Have never worked the days after xmas always booked annual.
This year f**k nose whats going on!!

I remember that, we did work an extra hour but I don't know if it was national or local agreement.

gooner84 · Post by **gooner84** » 24 Nov 2008, 19:09

i work Mon to Fri and have a Saturday S.A (scheduled attendance). Until recently if we didn't turn up to do our S.A we had 3 warnings and then they would change your S.A to a day in the week usually a Tuesday.
last week a lad on our section didn't turn up without phoning in and was given a letter on the Monday saying they had changed his S.A to a Tuesday. This was his first time of not turning up( he showed the letter to the union rep and was told to ignore it)
With the 27th being on a Saturday do you think they are trying it on so we all turn up.
What are the rules concerning S.A's . is there something i can print off.

Martin Walsh · Post by **Martin Walsh** » 24 Nov 2008, 19:55

In the past when there was a non service day called Royal Mail use to claw the hourage back by making people work additional hours to pay for the non service day. This caused loads of complaints as it reduce overtime earnings etc. As a result the CWU reached a national agreement which elimanted the claw back.

The reason why Royal Mail do not want the 27th to be non service day is threefold, 1 is that Royal Mail have just got the amazon contract back and amazon have said along with all the other internet shopping companies that they are expecting massive orders on Xmas Day and Boxing day which they want Royal Mail to deliver on Saturday. The 2nd is the fact a number of downstream access companies are insisting Royal Mail deliver on the Saturday in line with their contract to them. The third is that under the Post Services act Royal Mail have a lience to deliver 6 days per week 52 weeks per year with the exception of Bank Holidays. For Royal Mail not to operate on the 27 th Dec Post Comm would have to agree. Whilst it was in Post comms second submission to the Hooper to cease the USO on saturdays it still was no guartnee that they would agree.

With regards to a strike on the 27th all the Dvisional Reps consulted Branch`s and in my belief the PEC made the right decison. The fact is that it would have to be a national ballot with the majority of mail centre staff not effected as they in the majority of cases work Monday to Friday , the same for Distrubition staff , plus a lot of them have earning opportunites for Saturdays. With regard to deliveries they will be some already on rest day .

But problably the biggest reason is that we are trying to organise both politcally and industrially to sort out pensions, mail centres , and Royal Mails delivery strategy and sorting out the shorter working week etc , striking for a day off whilst popular doesnt really move us forward.

In addition when Branch`s were in the past balloted over the non service days some of them got a no vote so its no certainty even if the cwu choose to ballot we would get a yes vote.