Can we be sacked for striking

[PostiePaul]

1st Question:
Can we be sacked for striking?

If im worried about this then im
sure there are 1000's of other RM
workers who are thinking the same thing....

I have a morgage and bills to pay.......

Im a member of the union.

2nd Question.
How comes we havent been "offically" told
about the strike.
We havent all been called to a meeting with our union rep and
told.
All we know is what we have read and seen on the news.

Cheers,

[bigsharkboy]

answer to 1st question is no its a totally legal strike if this was the case royal mail would have very few staff on the following saturday

answer to 2nd question i can only say whats happened here but we have had communication from hq via LTB,email and texts to reps and contacts
read your local cwu noticeboard or speak to a rep

i also have a mortgage and bills to pay as prob do must postman/woman and what i say to people who tell me this
is can you afford not to strike can you afford to live on a 2.5% pay rise while they take our shift money our d2d payments our S/A pm collection our sunday collection S/A and the cost of living keeps going up and eventually all going P/T

:lfo :cfo :lfo :cfo :lfo :cfo

[Bloke7]

As far as I know on an official strike you can't be sacked for striking. And I believe you can't have your contract changed either if it is official.

There has been unfortunately little information because a lot of reps have to be very careful what they say up to and including the strike. They aren't allowed meetings with the staff and to be honest sometimes it's hard to even organise a meeting if you have to be careful what you say in the office.

But other than that, you should get some information prior to the strike days; and even if you don't on the day of the strike, it might be worthwhile turning up to see what your rep has to say.

[Codebreaker]

1. The Law protects us as this will be LAWFUL INDUSTRIAL ACTION - if it were the case that someone after taking Industrial Action returns to their workplace and is subjected to negative treatment by their Employer, for that act, then that beahvior in itself would be deemed ILLEGAL by any Court in the UK.

2. I think it depends on the area you live/work and the Branch you are in. My Branch were VERY quick in reacting and days ago organised meetings off site for talks and preparation for Strike Action across all shifts - my Branch is Plymouth & East Cornwall, my Area Reps/Branch Officials are spot on.

GOOD LUCK TO US ALL

[TrueBlueTerrier]

They question I asked myself before I voted was:

Can I afford to go on Strike in the short term.

No too many bills etc

Can I afford not to go on strike Long term.

No I must strike unless I want to accept lower wages, harder working and worse conditions
and let the bosses dictate instead of talking to me. Also can the Public accept or support
Royal Mails vision of the future. (Profit not service).

[rhino49]

Royal Mail will continually bombard you, through WLT sessions with their view of the situation - but will not allow any union meetings on company premises whilst there is actual or threatened industrial action - your rep cannot hold a meeting - but he can have a meal relief - talk to him or her at every opportunity and then spread the word - being a union member is not just listening - it is acting and supporting - make sure everyone gets news, updates and most of all - THE TRUTH. Support your colleagues and union by facilitating their communications, honestly and accurately in the workplace.

[cruisey]

GREAT POST RHINO 49. IT'S A TIME WHERE ALL US REPS NEED SUPPORT. YOU COULD SAY FOR THIS STRIKE PERIOD EVERY CWU MEMBER CAN BE A REP BY PASSING ON ANY INFO THEY KNOW (PROVIDING ITS LEGIT). WORD OF MOUTH IS THE ONLY WAY TO COMMUNICATE AS DOMS ARE UNDER INSTRUCTION NOT TO LET REPS BRIEF.

[ade@cambs]

Don't forget most mortgage providers will let you take a "holiday" from your payments, if things start to get tight im sure your mortgage provider will be able to sort something out.

[cappamore]

Yes, you can. If you strike you are in breach of your contract of employment and therefore, it is lawful to sack you.

And now here's the good news! It is unlawful to selectively re-engage workers who have been on strike in that those employees not re-enaged after strike action will be able to successfuly claim unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal. It works like this; if RM decide to sack all of their striking workers and at no time during the 6 months following their dismissal do they re-employ any of those sacked workers then those dismissals are lawful. However, if RM re-employes [b]just one, then the rest of the sacked workers will be able to claim unfair dismissal at an ET.

I think it highly unlikely that RM will sack all striking workers. If they do, who's gonna do the bloody
work? 5,000 managers? do me a favour!

On the subject of managers I do wonder if those managers RM deploy on postmen's duties during the strike are given lifting and handling training and that all of their duties are risk assessed, cos if they don't it's a serious breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act and when are they gonna find the time to do all that training and risk assessing before Friday? They're not are they? of course if someone wants to blow the whistle and inform the Health and Safety Executive

[norbet colon]

RM pulled that one on AGs in 2003. MC staff on Revision or Address indexing ?? contracts were told if you strike , your contract will be cancelled. Dave Ward condemned this as disgraceful bullying