Dispatches Ch4:Your views

[realitybites]

When they said a postie wasn't takingout his full walk, you could see he had taken specific roads and was coming back to do it bag by bag, as some do in our office.

[chickenwittle]

some serious london bashing going on here at the end of the day that office was on a 10 hour day and rm switched it back to an 8 hour day which means they didnt have enough time to complete and wernt gonna kill themselves to do so if rm didnt keep messing staff about there wouldnt be to many problems.

[steven100]

The programme never showed postman/rm in good light but a lot of the things they did address, ie faulty equipment, agency staff,bad training, which has been a problem within RM not just in London but all over the country. It will only get worse. More agency staff up and down the country. This is how RM want the business to go. The sad bit was postman making feeble excuses to not deliver mail, again this happens up and down the country. London postman need to wake up and realise RM is changing, the only thing that i did have sympathy for London postman is the 10 hours down to 8 hours. If RM are reducing they hours a day it should be reducing the walks too.
London need better managers to run the offices.

[dvbuk55]

If the calibre of staff, casuals, postmen and managers, in London is as typical as shown on the program then it is little wonder that it's in the state that it is. I'd be interested in why, if the union is so strong, there is such a heavy reliance on Agency workers and if the reason given is recruitment, despite the London loading allowance, how do other areas manage to recruit without any allowances at all.

Just as a matter of interest, if you are unemployed in London, do you receive more unemployment benefit than elsewhere?

[dvbuk55]

some serious london bashing going on here at the end of the day that office was on a 10 hour day and rm switched it back to an 8 hour day which means they didnt have enough time to complete and wernt gonna kill themselves to do so if rm didnt keep messing staff about there wouldnt be to many problems.

You mean taking executive action and imposing change without consultation? - join the club.

[The truth!]

If the calibre of staff, casuals, postmen and managers, in London is as typical as shown on the program then it is little wonder that it's in the state that it is. I'd be interested in why, if the union is so strong, there is such a heavy reliance on Agency workers and if the reason given is recruitment, despite the London loading allowance, how do other areas manage to recruit without any allowances at all.

Just as a matter of interest, if you are unemployed in London, do you receive more unemployment benefit than elsewhere?

Dvbuk you have to realise the levels of casual staff used then was as a result of the backlog of mail which had been built up. In addition some offices which had seen 4 day weeks cut could not complete their work and the casuals did the rest of the walks. In some offices in London we still have high levels of casuals becuase Royal Mail`s imposed change has not worked.

Now in regards to the 8 hour and 10 hour day and why that was such an issue, its because offices agreed to reduce walks in order to get a 4 day week. For example if you had 20 walks on a 5 day week , moving to a 4 day week you would have to go down to 16 walks in order to fund the additional rest day covers you need.

Hence when Royal Mail put offices back to 5 day week duites they saved the rest day covers. But in many cases due to the reduction in the walks offices cannot now do the work they used to do in 10 hours in 8 hours and hence the amount of casuals.

Remember London weighting was paid and increased because they couldt recuit or retain staff in London along with the extra costs associated with living in london everything from child care to dentist care etc.

[Judgee]

If all of the instances on this programme were taken out of context and is not a true reflection on the job in London, if posties here are being taken in and causing a "we hate London" scenario, what chance do we have of the public not believing every single word.

Yes enough of the London bashing. Don't be taken in by this bullshit program. They plucked the worst bits to make it look bad and most of the bad was down to useless casuals so nothing new there!

[spoodoo]

WHY ON EARTH ARE THERE SO MANY CASUALS ??? THE R M WAS ONCE A HARD TO JOB TO GET WHEN I STARTED,,,WHATS GONE WRONG..

[dropbag_clone]

What the TV showed appeared to be a third world sorting office staffed by third world staff.

Are there any offices outside cosmopolitan London that are anything like the shambles shown on this programme?

[Caniel]

What the TV showed appeared to be a third world sorting office staffed by third world staff.

Are there any offices outside cosmopolitan London that are anything like the shambles shown on this programme?

Watching Dispatches made me think I'm lucky to work in my office.

[Ernie Shoe]

Feck me 29hrs O/T at S/A rate over the xmas period WTF. Good on the rep for negoatiatng that one.

Sorry chaps there is one major divide between north/south postal workers what a load of B/S

The manager stated same as last year well last year there was nothink on the table apart from the 2hrs on each saturday.
.

Not North - South mate.
Go just outside the M25 and we get the £100 bonus like everyone else at Xmas. Not a penny more!
"2hrs each saturday" what's that for?????

[dvbuk55]

What the TV showed appeared to be a third world sorting office staffed by third world staff.

Are there any offices outside cosmopolitan London that are anything like the shambles shown on this programme?

I like "cosmopolitan" so very pc and so very very apt, as for comparables I would imagine there are, somewhere in the third world, not likely in this country though.

[dazzlin72]

I'm in agreement with monkeyboy. The Union are going to find themselves in a right mess over this north/south divide issue. By not having the balls to agree everything nationally, but washing their hands and leaving it up to offices to make their own local agreements, you have the situation as on the dispatches programme. Everone is clearly not in the same boat, so why expect everyone to go out on strike united. Didn't the offices down south get the same lump sum payment as everyone else in the pay & modernisation deal ( probably more), and yet it appears that it is us posties up north that are the only ones who have had to adhere to the changes.
It does appear that the Union are only interested in the interests of the southern members.
I'd love a 4 day week, and 29 hours overtime guaranteed at christmas, we work a 5 day week, have to prep other walks as well as our own, and absorb. We were lucky to get 1hr exta overtime on the 2 saturdays before christmas.
Workers down south want to get a reality check!

[carpbarbel]

when was we doing 4 day week i didnt did i miss out?? used to do a six day week with no overtime included as i will not work overtime. seems the program featured casuals a lot who are not interested in the job so why care.

[Mr Blonde]

Was that staged?

Casuals just walking into the managers office and getting into in depth conversations?

LOL