Have you read the article in the Daily Mail,unbelievable

[kay_thebigbird]

Front page Daily Mail talk about a load of lies, the public are bound to believe it, article about,The spanish Practices,if we work 10 mins over are time we claim 2-3 hrs o/t & how we get paid extra for working easter saturday when there is hardly or no extra work to take out,set overtime at xmas even when there is no extra hrs worked,where is that coming from xmas is a nightmare,etc etc, it's so obvious that this paper is very friendly with the powers that be within the Royal Mail, what has been written is nothing short of outrageous,the media have alot to answer for.

[pickaname]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... chaos.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Millions of letters stuck in the post as unions create strike rota to keep country's deliveries paralysed

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0QiRdRDWD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Tens of millions of letters are sitting undelivered after rolling strikes brought chaos to the postal system.

Some 20,000 Royal Mail workers are on strike, paralysing parts of the network.

The backlog in London alone could run to 20million items. Some families have not received deliveries for ten days.


A huge backlog of mail at the Royal Mail sorting office in Nine Elms, Vauxhall, south-west London

Millions of items are said to be sitting in sorting offices in the Bristol area, 500,000 in Peterborough and 250,000 in Leeds.

The walkouts will be stepped up over the next few days to affect a vast swathe of the country.

Union leaders claim the backlog is already bigger than in the last national strike in 2007, which cost businesses an estimated £300million.

The strikes are causing serious hardship and inconvenience to consumers and businesses.

Those waiting for credit card statements are receiving them so late they are being hit with penalty charges.

Utility bills are being delayed, bringing warnings of disconnection and legal action. Small firms are unable to complete orders and have been particularly badly hit.

Wildcat strikes have led to a build-up of mail in sorting offices

The postal workers have been going out on strike on a rota basis, with the result that at least one part of the national system is always at a standstill.

This minimises the loss of pay for those involved while maximising the disruption.

They accuse Royal Mail of provoking the action by 'bullying' staff over its cost-cutting modernisation plans.

But the company denies this and insists the cuts are vital to stave off losses.

It also says it is time to end a series of costly Spanish Practices dating back to the 1970s, such as allowing a postman to go home if he finishes his round early.

Also in the firing line are automatic overtime if mail volumes reach a certain level, guaranteed overtime at Christmas, and the right to refuse to work outside particular rounds or postcodes.





Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'The post has been reduced to a trickle in many areas. This kind of dispute makes the UK look amateurish on the world stage, particularly if letters are not being responded to and orders not satisfied.'

Phil McCabe, of the Forum of Private Business pressure group, said: 'Businesses are experiencing very serious disruption.

'The difficulties range from simple issues such as waiting for cheques to delays in getting items through to customers.'

A spokesman for the pressure group Consumer Focus, Nigel Woods, said: 'Customers rely on the postal service and the continued strike action is causing people real inconvenience.'


Logjam: Some of the undelivered mail in a depot, as taken by the Communication Workers' Union who claim millions of post is backed up

He warned there is a risk it will cause long-term damage to public confidence in the Royal Mail.

'We would like to see the unions and management work together to avoid further disruption to Royal Mail's service,' he added.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the action is particularly hurting small businesses.

A spokesman said: 'Firms want an efficient, value-for-money and reliable service, which Royal Mail must be able to deliver without the fear of more industrial action.

'This has been going on for far too long - a backlog of millions of letters is unacceptable and needs to be urgently dealt with.'

The Royal Mail has seen its income savaged because of EU rules which force Britain to open up the postal system and allow private firms - often from Europe - to enter the market.


At the same time, income from letters has fallen because more individuals and businesses have switched to using email.

Management responded by axing the Second Post, while staff cuts mean most addresses do not get their mail until the afternoon.

Thousands of post offices have been closed, while collections from boxes have also been cut.


The Communication Workers Union has announced plans to ballot on a national strike to coincide with the Labour Party conference unless Royal Mail agrees to talks.

The union said: 'The mail backlog is now bigger than at the height of the national strike of 2007 with well over 20million items backed up in London alone.

'We also have reports of mail backlogs of a million items in the Bristol area, half a million in Peterborough, a quarter of a million in Leeds and failures and delays in the network across the UK.

'The situation is significantly disrupting mail with delays of over a week being reported.

'Despite this, Royal Mail refuses to change its approach to imposing change and is refusing to negotiate.'

The union's deputy general secretary, Dave Ward, said: 'Management have been attacking our members through bullying in unagreed, often unworkable, changes.

'The dismissive attitude to staff at the same time as cuts to jobs, hours and overtime and a pay-freeze has made Royal Mail a dismal place to work.'

Royal Mail, however, denied the backlog is as serious as the union is claiming.

A spokesman said: 'The strikes today are again focused on London and the amount of mail delayed in the capital is absolutely not the 20million figure claimed by the union but nearer to four to five million letters, which we expect to clear in the next few days.

'More than 90 per cent of our people are working normally, delivering mail today across the country - and we are again urging the CWU to call off their strikes and provide customers with the service they need and expect.'

He added: 'We completely reject the union's claims about bullying.

'The changes we are making are fair and reasonable and entirely in line with existing agreements with the union.'

[slave]

Poor journalism in the Mail, surely not!? Well actually I wouldn't expect anything else from a shitty rag like that.

[DirtyHarry]

The Daily Mail, never has been the worker's friend, nor will it ever be the worker's friend.

One day, the workers may give the Daily Mail and those associated with it, cause for regret.

[Wessex]

Has the Spanish ambassador been informed? :cfo

[DGP1]

Does anyone actually get any of these Spanish Practices because I know I don't and nor do any of my office.

[Wessex]

These practices are from the same 92 that Royal Mail gave to the media in 2007,if they have just reissued them it is shocking and if some hack has cobbled this together from 2 year old Guardian articles then they should be sacked.Im sure the Spanish ambassador went mental with the spanish practices jibe and RM bosses had to grovel.
Think its time that the Spanish ambassador realises that RM may be repeating the same comments :cfo

[dvbuk55]

Does anyone actually get any of these Spanish Practices because I know I don't and nor do any of my office.

There was a system of overtime once which could loosely be attributed to the "Spanish" practices tag. At one time large booklet type magazines was "negotiated" and an element of overtime was paid. You worked overtime without pay during the week until your 40 hrs had been worked which was usually by 9 a.m. Friday - the remainder of Friday and all day Saturday was paid at overtime rates when overtime rates actually meant something.

Xmas too had hours negotiated for the two week period before Xmas - whether worked or not.

And the benefits of those practices? A happy workforce who felt valued, reimbursed for effort, who would go to any lengths to complete the job and would rally round when the going got tough, help colleagues who struggled and had a mutual respect with management.

Where did it all go wrong? Well Mammon raised his ugly head, we became a business and not a service, corporate business became king customer and granny smiths letter was no longer important. And we end up in never ending circle of conflict with a lacklustre management and a Government who has lost its' socialist roots together with a union who is more concerned with image than membership.

[zapranoth]

why isn`t the union considering some kind of legal action against the Mail? how can they be aloud to print lies about us?

[DGP1]

I think that one of our more eloquent members should try contacting the Spanish Ambassador and ask what he thinks about 'Spanish Practices'.

[poptart]

Does anyone actually get any of these Spanish Practices because I know I don't and nor do any of my office.

Yes some of this happens all the time in our office!!

The office is run on deals, people doing overtime agree two hours with the boss, book till 4.15 and are then finished at 2!!

Its totally wrong, cant blame the postie, its the managers fault.

[piranha]

Claiming 2 or 3 hours overtime for 10 mins, where do they get this BS from. Why aren't the union dispelling these myths? I'm already being called a scab by ****ing customers cos they don't understand the situation. It makes me the lies they tell, and surely it is racist calling this BS 'Spanish' practices? :cfo :mfo

[steviemac]

Does anyone actually get any of these Spanish Practices because I know I don't and nor do any of my office.

Yes some of this happens all the time in our office!!

The office is run on deals, people doing overtime agree two hours with the boss, book till 4.15 and are then finished at 2!!

Its totally wrong, cant blame the postie, its the managers fault.

good effort if they are taking lunch break before start of delivery , 10.15 start and 3.5hour delivery spec takes till 13.45...... oh forgot about any lapsing too.

[General Mannerheim]

Claiming 2 or 3 hours overtime for 10 mins, where do they get this BS from. Why aren't the union dispelling these myths? I'm already being called a scab by ****ing customers cos they don't understand the situation. It makes me the lies they tell, and surely it is racist calling this BS 'Spanish' practices? :cfo :mfo

Yeah but it does go on,I`ve seen them hassle some newbie about trying to book half an hours overtime then same day offer one of the docket skip rats 2 hours for doing half a row.
If it doesn`t go on in your office thats fine but I`ve been here 21 years and it`s always gone on...if you want to suck up to the lino`s and be his biatch you get as much overtime as you want...we even had a full set of managers sacked for fiddling the overtime for their mates in our old office and yet less than 12 months later it was back on the menu.