Mon-Fri.

[robd]

All the talk has been of working later/longer on a saturday,i for one am equally concerned about
finishing later through the week,yet there's been no mention of it.
How do other members plan to work round this with kids to pick up at 3pm?

[torres]

i know it will probably never happen,but how many of our workforce would love to work monday to friday.a skeleton staff could go in on a saturday and sort mail.do collections.deliver specials etc and business mail.the biggest problem is that 1 in 6 posties would be paid off.our office has 20 workers and everyone would love a saturday off.

[robd]

Sorry mate,
the point i'm making is,it's not just a problem finishing at 3pm one day of the week,but will be a massive
problem Mon-Fri for thousands of us.
i'm just surprised more people aren't concerned about it??

[Straight4ward]

“Letter delivery completion times will be up to 15:00 hours for residential areas and up to 16:00 hours for rural. The vast majority of letter deliveries are planned to be completed by 14:30 hours and most by 14:00 hours.”

Everyone will be hoping that they're among "the vast majority" but there are going to be some losers here.

[banner18]

i don't think it will be much later for most offices, just a few outlying ones...

[DGP1]

i don't think it will be much later for most offices, just a few outlying ones...

With the MC not expecting to complete the sequencing until 9/10am then were all going to be out late everyday (my DO is quite close to the MC so we'll get our last to allow for the outlaying offices to get theirs at a reasonable hour).

[belle smith]

Sorry mate,
the point i'm making is,it's not just a problem finishing at 3pm one day of the week,but will be a massive
problem Mon-Fri for thousands of us.
i'm just surprised more people aren't concerned about it??

There is provision in the agreement for Family frendly.....don't know how good it is, i haven't read it doesn't effect me.
if its a concern for you i'd look it up.

[Cut Off King]

“Letter delivery completion times will be up to 15:00 hours for residential areas and up to 16:00 hours for rural. The vast majority of letter deliveries are planned to be completed by 14:30 hours and most by 14:00 hours.”

Everyone will be hoping that they're among "the vast majority" but there are going to be some losers here.

NOTE that it says "letter delivery completion times" thats the last letter that you post, NOT your finishing time, you may have a collection tagged on the end of your duty, it could be 4pm OR 5pm before you officialy finish your shift. Afternoon collections performed as S/A will start to disapear as they are absorbed into your delivery duty. Your DOM will be as he can see these savings going into his bonus. ££££
You on the other hand will be as you will be working later in the day with increased childcare costs, but taking home LESS money.

[rhino49]

I have every sympathy for parents or carers who have had their responsibility for their children or other vulnerable family members endangered by regular changes in working patterns by Royal Mail. When I started with them both my wife and I worked part time to cover our children’s needs and whilst the income we got was barely sufficient the value of the time we had with our children was priceless. The fact that I knew I would be home relatively early to pick them up from school whilst my wife was at work gave us great peace of mind. I don't need to worry about that now but I realize that the pressure on people with young families is probably greater than we faced 10 - 15 years ago and I am happy to see their needs catered for within our work environment.

This problem though raises a few issues; firstly what is the capacity of any office to absorb family friendly arrangements? Only so much work can be done in advance of the main working day and not much after it if you are talking about the delivery part of the business and this is the area where mail traffic, weather problems and other variables make a finishing time difficult to forecast accurately, unless you are prepared to "cut off" occasionally.

Secondly, what constitutes Royal Mails responsibility to staffs requirements for special consideration?. If you are in the job when a change causes problems for childcare responsibilities then I think they should bend over backwards to help - but if you come new into the job, knowing what it is like, and then demand help with to accommodate an already existing care arrangement then I don't believe the business should have a responsibility to you. It would be a bit like buying a rail ticket and then complaining that you expected to be taken on a cruise.

I have occasionally helped out colleagues with a delivery to ensure that they got home in time to collect children and wasn't particularly bothered about favors being returned because it usually evens out somewhere along the line, but what happens if the onus starts to regularly fall on the staff without responsibilities to support those that do have them, by taking on what would normally be part someone else’s workload.

I know a few who have genuine needs for support and others who use that support to screw their colleagues and the company either by conveniently being available for lots of overtime when they would have been expected to be needed elsewhere, or seen cycling home at a blistering pace a long time before they really needed to be and somewhat before their revised finishing time - that is not a good influence on those who would campaign for their rights when they need them.

The proposed longer Saturday is going to cause a lot of problems and inconvenience for families and given that we will be expected to lose a percentage of jobs anyway maybe the best route would have been a voluntary specials and packets only Saturday and normal service Monday to Friday, but that would still mean probably late finishes.

Any other suggestions about how we get round the problem?

[mclovin]

It means a hell of a lot more people finshing on their time and either cutting off or handing back. Let the gaffers sort the residue out.