Ye olde buy-down witch..!

[HESS]

Have a member in my D.O. who took the buy-down from F/T(40hrs) to P/T(25hrs)....now that there could be a 30hr duty on the horizon,this individual seems to be under the opinion that their contract should be improved to 30hrs...!! This member is about a year or 2 away from retiring,so they have the seniority..! I don,t know the full run-down on buy-down contracts but surely this can't be right.they were given whatever sum of money to go P/T...even RM wouldn't be stooopit enough to let anyone to do the reverse..!! We have numerous P/T's waiting for any chance to improve their contracts and it's only in my opinion but they are a lot more deserving of a break..!! Please confirm my suspicions that anyone who has taken a buy-down cannot be made back up..?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Is this the Bit you mean

Agreement to the Buy-Down and receipt of the Compensation Payment will be subject to the employee’s agreement that

a) any future redundancy payment will be reduced as a result of moving to part time employment, with any subsequent redundancy payment based upon part time hours & pay. Note that the £30,000 relief can only be applied once per employer. In other words, say an employee reduced hours and was paid £20,000 tax free, in the event of a subsequent redundancy only the first £10,000 could be paid tax free.

b) upon termination of his/her employment except by reason of redundancy, or on increasing working hours or returning to full time work on a permanent basis, during the period of two years immediately following the Buy Down (“the Compensation Period”), he/she will refund a proportion of the Compensation Payment to Royal Mail equivalent to the unexpired portion of the Compensation Period.

Full document

Buy Down Hours Appendix 4 revised September 2007.doc

[lainey]

they will probably let him sign for it and take a couple of streets off it put them on to another shift or if the shift does ips take it away and make the one he signed for 25hrs , put any money on it !

[HESS]

Thanks TBT....but that mostly covers off the financial implications of the buy-down. What I would like to know....if a P/T was to be made up from 25hrs to 30hrs , would the member who has taken the buy-down get it before any other.By getting the buy-down they have indicated to RM that they only wanna work 25hrs , whereas a member who has been P/T for years is desperate for an improved contract...!! Does the fact they've had the b/d affect the outcome...? (I know this is boring)

[97gaz]

W

[theflyboy]

30 hour contract should be given to another part-timer as they are more financially in need of the hours( compensation money) & more deserving in my opinion than someone who can`t make up their mind what they want
With only 2 years to go & buy down money in bank I would have thought 25 hours would be enough to see out the remainder of time left with company. when i get to that age i will be looking for as easy a time as i can get if financially secure

[ROSSCO]

A posty in my office is buying down from 40 to 20 hours.He thinks he will get his pay off for droping hours but then intends retiring in april 2010.Surely he will have to pay back most of the money he gets,or they wont let him retire at 51 will they? Any body know how this would work?

[dvbuk55]

A posty in my office is buying down from 40 to 20 hours.He thinks he will get his pay off for droping hours but then intends retiring in april 2010.Surely he will have to pay back most of the money he gets,or they wont let him retire at 51 will they? Any body know how this would work?

He wouldn't be retiring at 51, he would be resigning and as such would have to repay the money.

[HESS]

Go to the reply at the top of the page from TBT....there's a link there that leads to info on the financial implications on buy-downs...!!

[baldrick]

A posty in my office is buying down from 40 to 20 hours.He thinks he will get his pay off for droping hours but then intends retiring in april 2010.Surely he will have to pay back most of the money he gets,or they wont let him retire at 51 will they? Any body know how this would work?

He wouldn't be retiring at 51, he would be resigning and as such would have to repay the money.

He might think he will be getting Voluntary Redundancy, but again, if he does he would have to repay most of the buydown.