4 day week

[Martin Walsh]

Postman is right there is no such law and in fact in most European countries they have delivery spans of 5 hours.

Royal Mail`s plan at the moment is that you have a 3.5 hour walk without any replinishment time which actually means a 4 hour plus walk , plus travelling time.

In the talks which are going on nationally with regards to deliveries the only issues which Royal Mail want the CWU to agree on is lifting the cap on door to door , later Saturdays and a longer delivery span. This is why we have to force them into an agreement on all aspects of the long term future on deliveries.

Royal Mail agreed longer 4 days weeks , the wallingtons ( 1 in 6 ) only 12 months ago in many cases most on phase 2 which was subject to a strict audit by Royal Mail before the £400 was paid. They have conned those members because they took savings and agreed flexibilty based on improved attendaces and now that they want to remove all improved attendaces it is totally unacceptable and typical of the most unreasonable and bullying big employer in the UK.

[Martin Walsh]

The longer saturday is for a couple of reasons network 2009 will drive work later into offices and therefore those with early finishes on a Saturday will struggle to complete. In addtion walk sequencing will drive later starts as the Gatwick trial demonstates. The walk sequencing machine sorts the walks in the speed which it says on the tin the problem is that the costings only allow for one person per machine so it is impossible to clear all the boxes down in the time they require so the offices which are furtherst from the walk seqencing office will not recieve the second batch of 40% until well after 10.00. You cant really sort the first 60% into the frames as sorting the remaining 40% will simply slow down productivity.

Royal Mail cannot not put more than one person per machine as then their levels of savings go out of the window. Once again Royal Mail have mis calculated on new technology and messed up as they have done so many times before.

In terms of why they require longer spans is because they want people to prep 3 walks on a Monday and Tuesday two of which a part timers will come into perform and two walks on a Wednesday , Thursday and Friday and Saturday in order to maximise producitvity in the future. By not including replinishment time in the 3.5 hours they lengthen the span by de fault.

[junkmale]

Taking account of the changes the union recognises must take place, what sort of working day is it striving to achieve for the members ? i.e. delivery model and indoor work. Hard to answer maybe sorry.

[axeman]

By the look of what 'dingo' has posted for the many do's out in the sticks a totaly unaceptable one !!! The cwu needs to negotiate the shorter week before they do anything that assists royal fail to screw us futher into the ground !!!

[wardroom]

Well put Dingo

A flyer explaining the new ws machines along with the facts you have highlighted should be forwarded to as many delivery offices as possible asap.

We are now in the grips of an employer determined to destroy the remaining good name we still have.

Regarding the excess in managers we have, we have been told not to worry as they dont come out of the office budget well now the whole group is on a loss this is no longer to be ignored.

[brothermagrew]

not as good as one week off in every 6
monday-saturday for 5weeks then a full week off with pay
add in annaul leave its knocking on for 14week a year off work
plus sick but keep that to yourself

Is this what is known as the "Hereford System" ?
We tried to get this started in our office a few years ago, but the Dim would only accept it if it was 100% across the office.
Unfortunatly, we couldn't even get 25% .....

Think the system to which your refer is widely known as the 'Walligtons' or "Wallington System".

Date: 6th January 2006
LTB No. 11 /06
Ref: 160.08
To: Branches with POSTAL Members
Dear Colleague
1 Week Off In 6 Duty Rotations (Wallingtons)
Branches will be aware that during the early part of 2004 the Union and Royal Mail
were involved in discussions regarding an agreed set of national guidelines covering
the application of the 1 week off in 6 duty rotations, widely known as “Wallingtons”.

Above LTB refers.

[Pinky 1]

not as good as one week off in every 6
monday-saturday for 5weeks then a full week off with pay
add in annaul leave its knocking on for 14week a year off work
plus sick but keep that to yourself

Is this what is known as the "Hereford System" ?
We tried to get this started in our office a few years ago, but the Dim would only accept it if it was 100% across the office.
Unfortunatly, we couldn't even get 25% .....

Think the system to which your refer is widely known as the 'Walligtons' or "Wallington System".

Date: 6th January 2006
LTB No. 11 /06
Ref: 160.08
To: Branches with POSTAL Members
Dear Colleague
1 Week Off In 6 Duty Rotations (Wallingtons)
Branches will be aware that during the early part of 2004 the Union and Royal Mail
were involved in discussions regarding an agreed set of national guidelines covering
the application of the 1 week off in 6 duty rotations, widely known as “Wallingtons”.

Above LTB refers.

Thanks for that brothermagrew
Now the CWU website can't give me any info on the system, so can anyone give me a link to this agreement so i can keep it for
future reference. We've had such a turnover of personnel in the last few years, that now it might prove popular some time in the future.
Also, how common is this across the country. It's not in place anywhere in my locality.
Thanks

[uprising95]

thats shocking that
i hope they dont do it in out DO

we van share now
2 rounds one van 2 people and after 5 hour a day im absolute shattered.
with all the walking running involved just to get done.

[uprising95]

because the time we get out the offices there's like 4 hour before our time is up so we have to take it all

only other thing is to slow time but then i wont have a job lol

[uprising95]

ok thanks for the info its something ive never thought of doing.

i always think well there not going to make any rounds smaller again are they so just get on with it .
towards the end of the week its hard to complete working our fastest in the safest way possible.

i was also thinking that they have made them bigger for mail dropping off as they say.
but who knows

[Martin Walsh]

It is my belief that Royal Mail know that walk sequencing and other new machines including the FLATs will fall short of what they orginally thought the savings and impacts would be , so they have decided to remove jobs under the disguise of a reducition of traffic.

We have 3 flat machines in London all of them have not produced the savings which they targeted too and whilst they have increased automation the kit is constantly breaking down and not reading certain types of mail.

Royal Mail `s claim of traffic loss needs to be viewed with caution. Yes downstream access is on the increase , we are in a reccession and firms do cut cost on postings this has happened in every reccesion and i have seen at least 5 in my time but this work picks up. Now in terms of levels of traffic up to 2007 they measure traffic in delivery offices by weight , Royal Mail appoached the CWU and said revenue and traffic did not correspond and that delivery office traffic recording was overstating traffic by as much as 17%.

They then recorded traffic in mail centres by MIST but when a mail centre fails to clear delivery offices still get bags which is unrecorded mail and does not provide a true traffic figure. Plus Royal Mail have changed the ITEMs per Killo which they use to weigh traffic by redcuing numbers by 20% so a box would have a figure one week of x amount and the very next would be reduced by 20% so is traffic deliberately being down dialled ?

On the other hand if traffic is down is it simply being recorded more accurately ? Could it be that we were simply overstating traffic in delivery offices for years so in fact its the same traffic now as previously so in fact their is no loss at all.

Plus remember Royal Mail might get less as a result of down stream access but they get more revenue from sized based pricing with packets and flats on the increase as a result of the increase of fulfillment traffic.

Now if you examine walk sequencing then the orginal trials which was in a number of DOs including stratford in EDO the problem management have is whilst they can take hours out of stratford all the offices stratford office serves like Forest Gate , East Ham , Plaistow they could not service waves 4 and 5 so therefore could only take 20 mins per duty out of a day.

The trial in Bristol and Gatwick have not been very successful either. Bristol is trailling 3.00 finishes becuase it cannot service the work earlier. Plus Gatwick means that the offices which are the furthest away from Gatwick like Eastbourne will not get their second batch of walk sequncing appox 40% of mail until 10 in the morning they cant prep the first 60% of mail becuase if you sort the second batch into the frames it slows down productivity and the required savings so all in all its a disaster which is Royal Mail has delayed the purchase and installation of walk sequencing.

So Royal Mail`s modenasiation plans will actually mean a worse service for customer especially for Frims as you cannot seperate the two streams .

This is no doubt why Royal Mail is attacking the workforce like never before as it knows that it has to do it now.

Thats why all members need to stand up and fight. It must be now or never.

[scotchick]

In our office we've all complained to our union rep that the shifts are too long but he just keeps saying there's gonna be an office revision, which has been gonna happen since jan, we have complianed till we are blue in the face and nothing happens.
Most of us can get out the office just after 9 and are finished for about 2.30, the reason we can get out so early is because we are constantly put under pressure by our manager to sort faster, we all get timed roughly once every 2weeks to make sure we're hitting our targets.
I have a half hr break before i leave and save my 20mins to get home early but as usuall there's always plenty willing to work through theirs.

[junkmale]

9 till 2.30? bloody hell

[scotchick]

Yeah then we all go home and sleep for about 11 hrs lol

[junkmale]

oh lol.