Our Royal Mail film wasn't second class

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... al-service" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Allegations that Dispatches has a pro-privatisation agenda or is unfairly picking on the postal service are wide of the mark

Roy Mayall claimed on Cif yesterday that Channel 4's Dispatches on the Royal Mail was a "barrage of negativity" that most postal workers would recognise elements of. Sadly, this being my third investigation into the state of the Royal Mail in six years, it was something I recognised all too well – and, judging by the response to the programme, our viewers did too.

In fact, appalling industrial relations, lax security, poor training, late mail, mishandling of packages, theft and laziness were evident in all three of the films we have made since we first started this investigation back in 2004. Mayall's issue seems to be that we failed to provide a coherent analysis of why the industry is in crisis. Perhaps he'd gone off to make a cup of tea when we devoted a section to the state of industrial relations within the company as witnessed by our undercover reporters. Or perhaps he just chose to ignore it. Either way, our investigation clearly demonstrated that industrial relations are one of the biggest problems Royal Mail faces – something both management and the union are responsible for.

He goes on to claim all of our experts have a privatisation agenda. In fact, all of our contributors commented on the state of Royal Mail, not privatisation. We also interviewed Simon Hughes, a Liberal Democrat MP who supports keeping the Royal Mail in public ownership.

Regardless of who does and who does not want privatisation, one thing all of our contributors shared was a desire to see Royal Mail succeed. They need it to succeed. We all need it to succeed.

Mayall also complains about the lack of genuine postal workers' voices in the film. Is he suggesting the employees we featured didn't actually work at Royal Mail? That the hundreds of posties we encountered over the six years of investigation somehow weren't real? As for the documentary not representing a "broad sample of offices in the UK" we clearly stated in the film we didn't choose the delivery offices but were sent to them by the employment agencies we approached for work. In addition, over the course of three films we have worked undercover elsewhere in the country – not just London. And, by its very nature, undercover footage is full of genuine voices, employees talking and behaving uninfluenced by the presence of a camera crew.

Mayall concludes with the damning suggestion that we "favour" private companies and if we spent time undercover in any company we would come up with similar material.

Here he entirely misses the point. It is precisely because the Royal Mail is not a private company that this investigation is so significant. Royal Mail is tasked with delivering to every one of the 28m business and home addresses in the country and, because we effectively own it, we have a right to know what is going on inside it. Private companies are a sideshow – this isn't about them, it is about the Royal Mail.

And, by the way Roy, if you have any information regarding these other private companies you think we favour then please feel free to get in touch – Dispatches is always looking for a new story.

[Wessex]

Sounds like they Can give it but Can't take it... bless em and they haven't understood Roy's points either by the sound of it which makes it a little bit more understandable why we were served up with such a poor offering is that after 6 years they still dont understand anything about the Industry we work in.Roy would be right to suggest to them to do their next undercover investigation into bodies such as Postcomm although Im not sure how the journos would get in...Perhaps as agency waiters serving at A Free Lunch... they do exist you know... all you have to do is book your ticket on The Gravy Train lol

[fmrPOSTIE]

why not deal with the issues raised though:

Dire management

Staff who think the can do what they like when they like.

Poor security. (and I would say RM security is poor right across the UK).

[Wessex]

why not deal with the issues raised though:

Dire management

Staff who think the can do what they like when they like.

Poor security. (and I would say RM security is poor right across the UK).

You raise 3 issues

Issue 1 explains issue 3
Issue 2 is Issue 1

Im being facetious a little I know fmr postie(apologies) but I think someone like Roy Mayall is perhaps looking more at the underlying issues of Royal Mail and trying to explain why we are at the stage we are at rather than producing what appears to be no more than poorly assembled sensationalist journalism that gives us little intellectual insight into the situation we are at.
But of course I agree with you lets debate the issues raised and where better than RMC .

[IWW Fellow Worker]

Looks as if Roy has got them on the run!

[Wessex]

Looks as if Roy has got them on the run!

They dont like it up them Captain Mainwaring !

[Pat Ostman]

In fact, appalling industrial relations, lax security, poor training, late mail, mishandling of packages, theft and laziness were evident in all three of the films we have made

All I can say on the matter is I do not recognise much about tooting DO in my office. And they bang on and on about theft, what proof did they have about theft in Royal Mail?

A manager talking candidly about how it could be done.

Dispatches has NEVER seen ANYONE steal from Royal Mail EVER. None of their footage shows anyone stealing mail and never has. In fact they were forced to apologise last time.

They are scum.

Royal Mail also objected to newspaper advertisements for the programme that depicted an envelope containing a birthday card being opened and money taken from it by a Royal Mail worker. Channel 4 has now acknowledged that the photograph was a mock-up posed by an actor, and that during six months of undercover filming, no such acts were filmed.

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news ... cumentary/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Pat Ostman]

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/disp ... r-response" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tell Simon Barns exactly what you think of him

[goinpostal]

"Mayall also complains about the lack of genuine postal workers' voices in the film. Is he suggesting the employees we featured didn't actually work at Royal Mail?"

What a load of bollox!

"The hidden camera showed again and again postal workers forced to deal with too few staff and unsustainable workloads. But put through the Dispatches camera’s special filter lens, this ended up interpreted as lazy workers and greedy unions. Nowhere was it asked why cuts were needed, if Royal Mail is already making a big profit.

Royal Mail managers were exposed for their laidback attitude to stealing, angry customers, and damaged mail, but the aim wasn’t to show a public service shredded by cutbacks and competition, but a dysfunctional company that can only be saved by privatisation.

The bias became blatant with the string of “experts” who were wheeled out to pronounce on how crap Royal Mail and the CWU are...

Not a single union representative was formally interviewed (not counting working reps spied on by camera).

Red Postie

[Roy Mayall]

I've just sent them a reply, as follows:

Hello, I've just picked up on your answer to my Cif piece yesterday.

As I'm sure you know, 500 words isn't really a lot to say stuff in, and there was plenty more points I could have made, but, in answer to your final point, I do, in fact, have a story for you.

The problem with the Royal Mail isn't only down to bad industrial relations. It's also down to the fact there are a bunch of parasitic companies leeching off the back of us.

We do the work, the private mail companies take the profit. The Royal Mail actually supplements these companies at the rate of 2p for every letter it delivers on their behalf. Every time I deliver a letter for TNT or UK Mail, or any one of the other 41 private mail companies, it is a blow to my job and my pride, not to say my pocket as a taxpayer. You can read my views on that here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Royal-Mail-in-t ... ket-Casino

They call this process "deregulation" but in order to achieve it the Royal Mail is highly regulated. And then, when you look at who does the regulating, you find that most of the members of the Postcomm have interests in privatisation in one form or another. You can check that out here: http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2009/12/21/ro ... gulators/

Your programme makes it clear that there is a bad attitude in some (but not most) offices, but it failed to address the major issues facing the Royal Mail at the moment. "Modernisation" is a euphemism for privatisation, and for an attack upon our wages and conditions at work. The company has shed 60,000 jobs in the last 7 years, while mechanisation has not taken up the slack. In other words, the remaining 120,000 RM employees have been doing a third more work for the same wages. It has been becoming harder and harder to do a proper job. We've watched our status as workers go down. We are carrying more and bulkier mail while being pressurised to do the job ever faster, doing longer rounds, all for the same money. Is it surprising then that some postal workers have become surly of late and that industrial relations are strained, to say the least?

I'd like to see you do a programme about "final mile delivery" - as I've described it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... sties-mail - and the collusion between government and the regulators to hide this attack upon our service behind the smokescreen of "market forces". The market is a sham, a cheap cover for what is really happening to our industry (and which Dispatches entirely failed to address) the process of enforced (and hidden) privatisation.

Best wishes,

Roy Mayall.

[floydy]

Nice one Roy

[Pat Ostman]

Nice one but not a chance Roy, they are just not interested.

[PostieWithTheMostie!]

... Here Here...

[DGP1]

some postal workers have become surly of late

I've been surly for a long time...............not long after starting in RM actually


Oh by the way, Nicely put Roy

[norbert]

some postal workers have become surly of late

I've been surly for a long time...............not long after starting in RM actually


Oh by the way, Nicely put Roy

Bit thick aren't they - Roy Mayall is obviously a non de plume but they refer to it as a real person - they don't like it up 'em , how dare people slag off their Spu**bridge Polyversity Media Studies Year One Film

Wheeling out people from the Adam Smith Institute - slightly to the left of Hitler and Hooper - a bit obvious ? - interviewing RM managers , who if they were any thicker , they'd be solid .