Been in the Job 3 Weeks now Fellas :)

[NWpostie]

you should take your breaks, some offices won't let you book an extra 40 min on top for working through your breaks, some do, breaks are there for a reason.

[k979aaa]

you should take your breaks, some offices won't let you book an extra 40 min on top for working through your breaks, some do, breaks are there for a reason.

With a 25 hour contract he is entitled to a twenty minute meal relief if he take's it at the end he should be paid for it!. If he does not get paid for it he should take his break and inform the manager he may not be able to complete in time ( even if he can and will ) In order to mess the manager about!.

[NWpostie]

forgot about the 25 hour bit, its been years since I was part time.

[ghostgirl]

With a 25 hour contract he is entitled to a twenty minute meal relief

Sorry but need to correct you on the length of meal relief - its 30mins for anything over 4hrs 59mins.

[k979aaa]

With a 25 hour contract he is entitled to a twenty minute meal relief

Sorry but need to correct you on the length of meal relief - its 30mins for anything over 4hrs 59mins.

Depend's is he six day's or five day's only he would know and it is for him to make the time for his health and wellbeing!. BUT AS YOU SAID IT IS 30 MIN FOR OVER 4 HOUR'S 59 MIN'S A GOOD POST!.

[NewPostieUK]

Sorry but need to correct you on the length of meal relief - its 30mins for anything over 4hrs 59mins.

Not in my office. I'm on a 25 hr contract over five days and I get 20 mins a day. I asked about when I go over, say work an hours overtime, still 20.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Sorry but need to correct you on the length of meal relief - its 30mins for anything over 4hrs 59mins.

Not in my office. I'm on a 25 hr contract over five days and I get 20 mins a day. I asked about when I go over, say work an hours overtime, still 20.

He is wrong:

From the way forward agreement: http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 36&t=11941

1.MEAL BREAKS




Introduction

This agreement commences from 3 April 2000, and establishes a new national standard in relation to meal relief entitlements, together with a process for all offices to achieve it. This agreement replaces all existing national and local agreements on meal relief entitlements and provision. The new entitlements will be introduced alongside SWW as part of the performance improvement programme agreed within the context of PBS.

Fill-time meal break entitlements

All full-time employees working in delivery offices on a 40-hour gross week over five or six days will generally have a standard entitlement to 40 minutes meal break per day and 30 minutes on the shorter day (normally Saturday) of a six day attendance, exclusive of any grace breaks (see below).

All full-time employees working in Mail Centres on a 40-hour gross week, generally over five days, will have a standard entitlement to 40 minutes meal break per day (this means that up to 60 minutes per day total breaks can be provided by scheduling Relaxation Breaks by joint local agreement – see below).

Other full-time employees on standard attendance patterns will have the same entitlements as in delivery.

Where there are unusual duty patterns (e.g. long or short attendance patterns, or jobs with fewer than attendances per week) the meal break entitlement will be determined on a daily basis for each attendance from the table of entitlements below.

Where the proper entitlement (i.e. based on the national standard and the table below) is currently exceeded, meal breaks in the offices concerned will be harmonised with the standard over the three-year life of the performance Bonus Scheme. This will be implemented in equal stages up to April 2002 as part of the joint revision programme.

Meal Brakes for non-standard, as part-time and extended attendances

Part-time jobs, and full-time jobs with non-standard attendance patterns, will attract meal breaks for each daily attendance as followed, reflecting a generally pro-rata entitlement to the national weekly standard:

Attendance length total breaks probable pattern

Less than 2 hours 30 minutes none (a 10 min grace break should be provided if work permits)
2 hours 30 to 3 hours 10 mins 10
3 hours 1 to 3 hours 30 15 mins 15
3 hours 31 to 4 hours 59 20 mins 20
5 hours to 7 hours 30 mins 30
7 hours 1 to 8 hours 59 40 mins 40 or 20 + 20
9 hours to 10 hours 59 50 mins 30 + 20
11 hours to 12 hours 59 60 mins 40 + 20 or 30 + 30
13 hours or longer 70 mins 40 + 30

Pending completion of the discussions intended to conform with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations, any exceptional attendances of 15 hours or longer will attract an entitlement of 80 minutes.

The actual pattern of breaks within these rules will be agreed locally.

Overtime and Schedule Attendance

Attendances consisting wholly of overtime, or of Scheduled Attendance on Sunday, should attract paid breaks based on the length of the attendance as in the table above. Attendances consisting wholly of weekday SA should attract unpaid breaks on the same basis, at least one of which must be schedule within the attendance rather than at the beginning or end. Where there is a gap of up to 59 minutes between duty and overtime (but not Scheduled Attendance, except on Sunday) that cannot be filled with useful work, this will be considered booked through time and paid for at normal overtime rates.

Conditioned attendances extended by overtime (or by SA on Sunday) consecutive with the beginning or end will attract additional breaks if the entitlement for the total attendance (overtime plus conditioned hours), in the table above, is greater than the breaks already scheduled during the conditioned attendance. For example, an 8 hour conditioned attendance with 4 hours overtime would attract an extra 20 minutes (i.e. 60 minus 40). In most cases, particularly if the additional break is for only 10 minutes, it should be taken between the period of overtime and the normal conditioned attendance.

Young employees

Meal breaks for employees aged under 18 should be arranged to provide at least a 30 minute meal break on any attendance of four and a half hours or more in length.

Breaks at the beginning or end of attendance

Where an attendance is provided with more than one break, the second break may be scheduled at the beginning or end, in which case attendance is not required solely for booking on or off. A single break should not be scheduled at the beginning or end of the attendance.

Grace Breaks

When work permits a grace break of 10 minutes, over and above the standard entitlements, should be allowed on all indoor and outdoor jobs. In no circumstances should this be scheduled. Where it is not possible to provide a grace break before going out on first delivery the employee should be given the chance to have cup of tea before leaving the office.

Relaxation Allowance

In the parts of Mail Centres covered by workload measurement and planning values, the additional grace break may be extended to 20 minutes for full-time indoor jobs and scheduled as “Relaxation Allowance”, as originally agreed in connection with RRP (10 minutes may be scheduled within indoor part-time jobs), on the basis that this represents an aggregation of the relaxation allowance already built into duties and therefore does not affect the number of hours scheduled or the cost of running the office. In total this provides a maximum scheduled daily break entitlement of 60 minutes for a standard five-day indoor attendance.

Exceptionally for MAA/VCS coders this Relaxation Allowance may be taken over and above any grace breaks on the basis of 10 minutes scheduled after every 60 minutes of coding work, as set out within the national agreement on IMP.

Relaxation Allowance is built in to delivery work standards through DPMS, and outdoor employees are able to manage their own workload and pace within these standards whilst out on delivery.

For indoor employees covered by workload measurement but not in Mail Centres (e.g. all-night inward sorting or ASAP work in delivery offices), there will be joint review of the issues relating to Relaxation Allowance.

Time Bonus

In some Mail Centres additional breaks have been scheduled as “time bonus” under the terms of the former bonus scheme agreements. Offices in this position will have the option of returning to standard national meal breaks by giving up the time bonus in return for additional bonus, or continuing with the additional break which will continue to be charged to the bonus scheme. The details will be agreed separately.

Meal break absorption and the Performance Bonus Scheme


In those delivery offices where the new meal break entitlements represent an increase over a current 30 minute daily break, the bonus scheme will need to be adjusted to reflect the additional costs involved. It has been agreed to aim to absorb 70% of the additional hours, with the value of the remaining 30% credited to scheme baselines from the point at which SWW and the new meal breaks are implemented.

Any absorption of the additional breaks over and above the nationally agreed 70% will be bonus–worthy under the terms of the PBS agreement. In those offices where the implementation of the new standard entitlements results in the progressive removal during the life of the PBS scheme of previously unwarranted breaks (as above), there will be no adjustment to scheme baselines. Therefore the savings involved will be bonus-worthy under PBS.

[NewPostieUK]

Very interesting! Just printed that off...

[ghostgirl]

Thanks TBT...I couldn't find that but knew I was right New Postie..Don't let the manager's try to tell you its 20mins and rip you off..they tried this with me when I first started but I just told them they were wrong and if needed I would print off agreement(I knew somebody on here would always give the correct info needed) and they always backed down

[stokes11eg]

Thanks TBT...I couldn't find that but knew I was right New Postie..Don't let the manager's try to tell you its 20mins and rip you off..they tried this with me when I first started but I just told them they were wrong and if needed I would print off agreement(I knew somebody on here would always give the correct info needed) and they always backed down

It used to be the case that if your walk was four hours or more, you got an extra 10 minutes, is this still the
case?

[johnnyp]

Thanks TBT...I couldn't find that but knew I was right New Postie..Don't let the manager's try to tell you its 20mins and rip you off..they tried this with me when I first started but I just told them they were wrong and if needed I would print off agreement(I knew somebody on here would always give the correct info needed) and they always backed down

It used to be the case that if your walk was four hours or more, you got an extra 10 minutes, is this still the
case?

I think you may be refering to the Grace Break A cup of tea before you go out on your walk,does not have to be a walk of 4 hours or more though and yes it still applies

[dvbuk55]

Thanks TBT...I couldn't find that but knew I was right New Postie..Don't let the manager's try to tell you its 20mins and rip you off..they tried this with me when I first started but I just told them they were wrong and if needed I would print off agreement(I knew somebody on here would always give the correct info needed) and they always backed down

You aren't correct! It would not be possible to use the same time scale, therefore the strict implication would be 4 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds consequently the meal relief IS 20 minutes and not 30 minutes - only after that would you be entitled to 30 minutes - but don't take my word for it - check with HQ.

[mh80]

Thanks for posting that, I just realised I actually get 10 minutes more than I thought with my official time being 6.5 hours a day!

[ghostgirl]

Thanks TBT...I couldn't find that but knew I was right New Postie..Don't let the manager's try to tell you its 20mins and rip you off..they tried this with me when I first started but I just told them they were wrong and if needed I would print off agreement(I knew somebody on here would always give the correct info needed) and they always backed down

You aren't correct! It would not be possible to use the same time scale, therefore the strict implication would be 4 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds consequently the meal relief IS 20 minutes and not 30 minutes - only after that would you be entitled to 30 minutes - but don't take my word for it - check with HQ.

Well I do 5hrs and get 30mins so I think you will find I am right!!

[baldrick]

I didn't understand what dvbuk55 was saying.
The Way Forward Agreement is quite clear.
Though prior to that agreement we had a local agreement in my MC which gave us 10 minutes
break for every hour worked.