buy down of hours?

[venom]

I was refused a buy down after being told I could get one - then a few months later the union rep got a bigger buy down than I was after

sounds a bit like mine rep was feathering his own nest so he could get evr if savings were met and he stitched our office up

[PostiePressure]

hello all - i'd be happy if anyone can advise me with my predicament regarding buying down my hours. i've been full-time for 2yrs (40hrs) but did 9yrs part-time (32hrs) prior...so 11yrs service in total of which the last 2 have been full-time. i've had enough of this company and how it has treated me and my office in recent years. my office is being forced to close down and i will have to travel miles further to the next nearest delivery office. it's really worrying me where i'll be in ten years time if i choose to stay with the royal mail as they simply have no interest in the workforce. i'm 37 now and struggle everyday - i dont think i'll be able to do the job in my fifties and sixties! so ive made the difficult decision to go to university in sept 2011. i will need to do an access course in september this year first. i want to reduce my 40hrs by as much as possible. i also want to change from deliveries to doing a few evenings a week at a sorting centre. i'm happy to go down to 10hrs a week as a student after sept 2010. my office needs to lose hours but i'm uncertain how much. i'm worried that if i go in to my manager and tell him about my plans he won't offer me anything (knowing that i'm going to leave soon anyway). i don't really want to say too much to my union rep either as i don't entirely trust him. if you accept a buy down do you agree to work for a set amount of years after accepting the money from royal mail? i heard that if you accept a buy down you have to stay working on the reduced hours for two years or else you have to pay some of the money back. is there any phone numbers or people i can talk to about this? i'd appreciate any advice. i want to give the royal mail the impression that i will stay with them, but that i could be persuaded to reduce my hours if they gave me some money. i'm definitely going to drastically reduce my hours as im unwilling and unable to stay full-time whilst doing a full-time access course. so i couldn't care if i only got £2000 it would help me through my 1st year of studies and i think the royal mail bastards owe me something for all the crap they've put me through in recent years. i would've liked to stay with the company and consider myself a very hard working and reliable person but i've learned to no trust the company anymore and worry how bad things will get in the future.

[POSTMAN]

if you accept a buy down do you agree to work for a set amount of years after accepting the money from royal mail? i heard that if you accept a buy down you have to stay working on the reduced hours for two years or else you have to pay some of the money back.

The above is true.Although you can do as much docket as you want.

Might be best to contact your area rep regarding the other issues.

[floydy]

PostiePressure...
i was offered 3500 to buy down 40 to 30
11 years service

told em to feck off and double it

[stodgy88]

i bought down from 40 to 30 been here 20 years ,got £8000-if you leave within 2 years you have to pay back %of payout EG -leave after 1year pay back 50% -£4000 -ok

[kayto]

postie in our office took buy down about a month ago from 40hrs to 20 , got £16,000, managers now have him in on overtime, this week he,s done 24hrs overtime resulting in considerable loss of overtime to the rest of us f/timers, surely this is illegal in some way, can anyone help?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

postie in our office took buy down about a month ago from 40hrs to 20 , got £16,000, managers now have him in on overtime, this week he,s done 24hrs overtime resulting in considerable loss of overtime to the rest of us f/timers, surely this is illegal in some way, can anyone help?

Illegal as in fine of jail - No. But its certainly not fair or reasonable.

You could always contact the rep and see if they can sort it out.

If that does not work then someone has to stick their head up over the parapet and start kicking off. All workers should be treated in a reasonable and fair way and if only 1 is getting all the docket then its not fair or reasonable and the "lamb" will have to go through the various levels of a Grievance, or even just have a word with the manager concerned.

[dvbuk55]

Strange really one of my beefs a while ago was that full timers was getting all the overtime and part timers were largely ignored - hardly happens now of course because there's hardly any overtime. However under the revision that should pretty much disappear.

[doomed]

Last week several full timers at our place were offerd only £500 and hour and the rep agreed it. Last year one bloke got a grand an hour.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Last week several full timers at our place were offerd only £500 and hour and the rep agreed it. Last year one bloke got a grand an hour.

Very Strange sounds like someone is passing on Chinese whispers.

Buy Down although decided locally on if and when, is subject to a National Formula. The formula used is similar to Voluntary Redundancy so the longer you serve the more money you get.

Certainly the rep would have IMO absolutely zero input into the individual amounts.