long weekends & saturdays off

[tam22]

hello all am a postman thats been doing the job for nearly 7 years and full time for about 5 whats the score about long weekends as in the past five years i have hardly any .. since may last year 1 saturday off as day off ,couple as annual leave ,before then it was year and a half since i had a saturday off as a day off ,before that i could say less than 5 saturdays off .. fed up saying to managers and union rep ..

tam ..

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Welcome TAM, good question I am in roughly the same boat 6 years in 5 years FT and I have never had a long weekend as my day off is fixed. Does anyone know if there is a national agreement in regards to rotating days off in general, and if so how we go about changing a fixed day off to a rotating day off.

Just had a thought as well Tam I have heard people using the grievance procedure against managers when Saturdays off is not being distributed fairly amongst cover staff and reserves. Worth thinking about.

Anyway welcome to RMC I hope you like what you see and I hope you become a regular poster. Welcome Tam.

[silverback]

What is your duty structure??? Reason I ask is the pay and modernisation agreement states that new innovative duty structures be discussed and examined jointly. This may be a possible solution. If you have any ideas as to how you could incorporate Saturday days off into your duty, discuss with your rep to take them forward.

[johnnyp]

hello all am a postman thats been doing the job for nearly 7 years and full time for about 5 whats the score about long weekends as in the past five years i have hardly any .. since may last year 1 saturday off as day off ,couple as annual leave ,before then it was year and a half since i had a saturday off as a day off ,before that i could say less than 5 saturdays off .. fed up saying to managers and union rep ..

tam ..

It all depends what your office duty structure is.If you are on a 5 day week,with a rotating rest day and you are a duty holder(have your own walk or are a rest day cover)then you will get a long weekend every 6 weeks(sat-sun mon off).If you are a reserve then you will get the day off that is rotating the wek you are on it.A possible soultion is when rerserves sign for there dutys on a weekley basis,instead of the senior one all ways signing first,rotate this as well so every one gets a shot at the walks with the long weekends a bit more often might not go down to well with the senior men but it gives everyone a shot at a few more long weekends.

[POSTMAN]

I'm sure there was something in SDD that offices had to do their best so that reserves get a L/w every 6 weeks.
At times it's impossible but they should keep a diary of what the reserves have had then they'll know who should get what and when.
Not just num 1 reserve getting it all the time.

In-fighting i'm alright jack/jill again!

[jcjd]

Senior posties get the chance to sign for the so called best walks through seniority the reserve list is just that, a reserve list.This should be rotated as in our office which works well, as most of the time if your not to fussed about what walk you want to do then most weeks, unless its your turn to be bottom of the list you get a choice of rest days and can pick what suits

[tam22]

hi our office is a 5 day week and afaik am a full time reserve .. the point is am not or once in a blue moon getting a saturday off ..or if i do i need to use an annual leave ..

but in our office its friends and family first ..

tam

[Stormproof]

Now i'm a reserve I very rarely get a Saturday off, infact I've only had one Saturday off since last August and that was taken as my last annual leave day and I think I only got that because they did'nt have a duty for me that day and I was asked on the Friday if I wanted to take it.

[silverback]

I was a reserve for a couple of years, never got any long weekends, just like you.....I approached the DOM explained I was entitled to one every six weeks like everyone else and felt I wasnt being treated fairly, equally, as regular duty holders. He told me because of operational reasons I could not be guaranteed long weekends. Put in a HR1 FORM (bullying and harrassment) claiming victimisation. Was upheld and DOM was very careful in allocating me 1 weekend off in 6 just like every other duty holder since. Depends how strong you are and how far you want to push it. You would have to be prepared for the backlash though. Just make sure you do your job properly and if the DOM is gunning for you, dont give him any foundation for retribution. Its up to the individual, is it worth it? are you prepared for thew aftermath? It worked out ok for me, it was the principle more than anything else.

[bedfordrl]

When the Dignity and Respect at work,or D.R.A.W. was kicked into action,and died a short while later,there was a list of targets and objectives and included into these was to give reserves their fair share of long weekends off,it never happened.
Like others here i have been a reserve for 7 years,my choice, but as our office is fairly small ,50 odd,if you shout loudly enough you get heard ,still I think myself bloody lucky if we get a Saturday off and a bloody miracle if we get Sat/Sun/ Mon off.

[POSTMAN]

It's actually not that hard to sort it.
Just keep a list of the reserves,mark the days they have off each week.
Now senior reserve or not,if they get a L/W or a Sat then the next week if there's a Sat or L/W up for grabs it goes to someone else.

Sorry,but it aint hard!
But you have to work together which is the bloody hard part.
But anyway,it's in one of the agreements,not sure if it's SDD or the way backward one.