ROYAL MAIL UNAGREED STANDARDS

[Geezer]

ROYAL MAIL UNAGREED STANDARDS

LETTER AND SPREADSHEET CURRENTLY IN CIRCULATION.

THE FACTS

The Royal Mail documentation currently doing the rounds in delivery Offices can only be described as corporate twaddle. It should be confined to the waste bin and the so called expert who devised it should be taken off pay.

The letter states that the accepted standards are at least 1220 items per hour on IPS and 12 items per minute on preparation. (To emphasise the point that they are twaddle these figures may vary from area to area)

The important thing here is that they are stating “items” and not letters. The fact is that Planning Values were industrially engineered on the different streams of traffic i.e. Letters, Flats, and packets, not a combination of all three.

There are no planning values for IPS that incorporates all three streams as “items”. If by chance they did incorporate all three into one value this would result in significant variations across delivery units because of the variances in the mail profile, i.e. the number of flats, letters, pkts etc can vary on a daily basis on each delivery, and from delivery to delivery. So it is not possible to apply a broad brush approach to any delivery or unit.

Furthermore there is also an anomaly between the letter and the spreadsheet. The letter quotes expected standards of 1220 items IPS & 12 items Prep, yet the spreadsheet uses throughput rates of 750 items for IPS and 10 items for prep. Not very scientific!

The letter also states that “It is a contractual requirement that you work to at least these standards”, it goes on to state “we can compare work rates and from this we can see that you are now not working normally and below the acceptable standards and are therefore not performing your contract properly”. This is nonsense and is designed to frighten people; there is nothing in the contract of employment about meeting arbitrary sorting standards. There is reference to collective agreements in the contract but none of these imposed standards form part of a collective agreement with the CWU. To threaten to take our members off pay if they do not achieve these arbitrary and unagreed standards is totally unacceptable and we are seeking legal advice on this matter.

The spreadsheet takes no account of moving from IPS to prep, dealing with dead letters, redirections, missorts, queuing for specials, loading your pouch/trolley. It is pure fantasy and assumes that our members materialise at the IPS frame and then re-materialise at their prep frame. It is further evidence of the unrealistic approach that Royal Mail is taking towards performance and efficiency. The only way that many of their standards can be achieved is to have a support mechanism of bullying, harassment and intimidation in place. Not that they would stoop to that level!

All members should continue to work normally and work safely. We are not asking anyone to go slow or work below accepted and agreed standards. Do your job properly and maintain your discipline and dignity. Let them lower the standards of behaviour. You are better than that. Thank you for supporting your union and each other.


OUTDOOR DEPARTMENT
COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

[DGP1]

Do you have the official document that says IPS is 1200 and prep is 12 per minute because in my office it's 1500 on IPS and 25 per minute prep

[POSTMAN]

Copied to downloads,cheers geeze