Annual Leave Reserves

[billyhayes]

Did anyone get the WTL last week on this as I am on 2 weeks holiday and someone mentioned it to me in passing and was a bit vague in what it is.
They said it was:

"X amount of offices are pooled into groups and the 'reserve' from one office will go to another where staff are needed. Travelling costs are paid but excess travelling time is not."

If you have not had this WTL apparently it will be tomorrow.

[billyhayes]

This is for POL counters staff.

[bigjames]

Thought last week's WTL was Savings Part 1 and the new Global Express service. Tomorrow's is supposed to be Savings Part 2 and Royal Mail 'Fast Drop'. I would be interested to hear what all this stuff about reserves is about, it is an issue that has never been addressed effectively in my opinion.

[claire1.9]

i am a full time reserve for my office and my manager has always said to me I could be moved if someone else without choice to another office which is short staffed. I have enquired with the union on this matter and have always been told that I am a reserved for my office only and could not be forced to move somewhere else and the cosa agreement would come into play. So what you are saying is that is going to change

[claire1.9]

I have always been told that I should not have a made up duty and that any fulltimer is off it should be that duty i follow. However nine times out of ten it is made up. Everybody else works on a rotation with Saturdays to make it fair except for me and the part time reserve who can work up to six Saturdays without one off.

[bigjames]

i managed near a year without a long weekend ,beeing a reserve ,its discrimanation by a mile!

Are you Royal Mail spoodoo? because this is a Post office, i.e. Counter thread. Saying that it would seem that the same sort of confusion regarding reserves crosses both businesses.

I have always been told that since area/regional reserves were removed and reserves placed in office that they were there to cover the expected leave requirements of that office. In some offices the reserves are specific people, often part-timers who were employed directly for that role, and in others the reserve duty is on the rotation. This has the advantage that you know when your stint at reserve is coming. At my office we normally need all of our reserves to cover our annual leave requirements, as we have a lot of staff with a lot of years in. However in my area it is generally accepted that if another office is in dire need of help, and someone goes out of the office, then that person is usually one of the reserves, unless of course a volunteer can be found, which isn't always easy depending on which office needs help. Not ideal, but one solution anyway.

[saunders265]

I can’t see any reason for confusion. Leave Reserves are part of the office establishment, calculated as per the Crown Office Staffing Agreement. If required at another office then the criteria laid down in that agreement should apply.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

MODERATOR POST: I have removed some posts on this thread as it was causing confusion. This is a POST OFFICE thread and some where inadvertently replying as though it was a "Blue Shirts" question. Hope you understand if it was your posts that were deleted.

[billyhayes]

Everybody else works on a rotation with Saturdays to make it fair except for me and the part time reserve who can work up to six Saturdays without one off.

This seems excessive. I would talk to your rep as the duties should be fair or even unfair for ALL.
ie, if you have a set of duties that are good then everyone should work them. On the other hand, if you have sh it duties they should be sh it for ALL.

On a personal note claire I must say that from other things you post, you have a right 'wrong-un' for a manager.

For the sake of my own concern try to get this rectified and let us know how you got on.

[saunders265]

On a personal note claire I must say that from other things you post, you have a right 'wrong-un' for a manager.

Very politely put - the thought had crossed my mind!

[DGP1]

On a personal note claire I must say that from other things you post, you have a right 'wrong-un' for a manager.

We normally call them much worse

[counter man]

in my place we have 2 reserve duties, and these are on the rota, so you work 2 of these every 9 weeks. Part time staff stay on the same duty. Dosent seem to cause us a problem, the reserves cover the duties left vacant due to leave, but if someone needs to go to another office, and there are no volounteers, will be prepared to go to to other offices to help.
Its quite clear in the COSA agreement how many reserves we should have,,,,,I asked my manager today.....and she told me two..which was correct..

Seems to me Claire...some managers know whats going on, and some dont.

[Big TImmy]

Seems to me Claire...some managers know whats going on, and some dont.

You Have just hit the nail on the head there mate - ours don't have a clue - as someone said in a previous post ,if you took them to a brewery and opened the door for them they wouldn't know what to do.

anyone else out there experience the same problems

[claire1.9]

we all say our manager makes it up as they go along. A manager doing a managers job but doesn't know how to do it

[DGP1]

we all say our manager makes it up as they go along. A manager doing a managers job but doesn't know how to do it

Ahhhhhhhh the RM way