Behind the spin...the deal's myths

[goinpostal]

Behind the Spin...
from Workers Power Postal Bulletin March 2010

The leadership is pushing alot of myths about the agreement in order to pressure people into voting yes. What's the truth?

MYTH 1: “Save D2D or it goes”

The PEC claims the D2D market is declining, and that they have saved our D2D payment by putting the “average” into pay. This is scare-mongering. Their own figures show that D2D payments declined by a tiny .3% last year (one third of one percent) from £51.6 million to £51.4 million! Not much of a decline then.

In return for lifting the limit on D2D, the deal proposes cutting the Early Shift Allowance (ESA £12.37) and converting all D2D payments into a £20.60 supplement. But right now the average D2D payment is £12.39 (though many workers regularly earn two to three times that), plus ESA it adds up to £24.76. So the deal's new £20.60 supplement is a £4 pay cut. It's even worse for part-timers who will get this pro-rata, despite delivering all the extra leaflets!

The PEC justifies this by arguing that the Early Shift Allowance is declining as only those employed from before 2007 receive it. But you don't raise the pay of a few by cutting it for the many!

CWU tops argue we need to help Royal Mail undercut TNT in the junkmail market by cutting our pay and hiking our workload, so it is more profitable! No thanks.

MYTH 2: “The deal saves jobs”

The PEC claims that the deal will save full-time jobs. In reality it will see a jobs massacre, at at time of high unemployment. Where will those posties pushed out of the business get decent jobs?

CWU tops claim that lifting the D2D cap (three per week max) and cutting its cost will boost traffic and save jobs. They claim that the alternative is Royal Mail taking more D2D anyways but bundling them up into one. Exactly - but they will do this anyways after the deal, so after taking a pay cut this year, we will face further job losses in years to come.

The deal allows the closure of up to half of mail centres, surrendering workers' lives and a quality network to Royal Mail's thirst for profit. Compensation for those affected are better, but many will not be able to travel hours every day to their new location and be forced to out. Many delivery offices will also close.

This real estate sell-off will make Royal Mail bosses a mint, the real reason for these “efficiencies”! It will mean a worse service for the public.

MYTH 3: “Working a full day Saturday means more off”

The union leaders have sold off our early Saturdays so we will finish after 3 or 4 pm - there goes our weekend and Royal Mail's Family Friendly policy! In return CWU bureaucrats say “creative” solutions agreed locally could mean a majority of staff get 1 in 4 Saturdays off or even more.

The only way to achieve this is a 4 day week with 10 hour days (or worse), and the majority of time spent on delivery. That's why the deal caves in to Royal Mail's demands to get rid of the 3.5 hour delivery span.

Royal Mail believes that once it has CD Vans and trolleys in place there is no longer a weight on shoulder issue, so they can hike the delivery time with no health and safety consequences. This deal will break our back.

MYTH 4: “This advances pay”

It advances basic pay…by cutting D2D pay for most delivery staff.

It promises a 6.9% basic pay rise but nearly half (3.5%) comes three years down the road in 2012 - plenty of time
for Royal Mail to decide they can't afford it (and the deal allows them as well as the union to reopen discussions on pay). In the meantime we get 2% this year (about £7 per week before tax) and 1.4% in 2011 (£4 per week).

In total, for most of the 95,500 delivery staff (the majority of postal workers) a big pay cut with D2D taken into account. Add in inflation, tax and the fact that we didn't get a pay rise last year, our pay is falling.

What about the massive lump sum payments, up to £2500 worth?

These are attractive when we are straining to pay bills in the recession. But these are one-off payments, not permanent basic pay. Worse, -almost all of this is not new money. The dividend for Col-leagueShares has been moved forward to give us £400 on signing the deal.

The £1000 bonus is just the final installment of ColleagueShares repackaged. We get all of it only once when we have made the required cuts and changes. It is a one off, the workload is for life! And the company always intended to buy our fake “shares” back.

Real estate windfalls from office closures, massive D2D profits… No wonder Royal Mail loves this agreement!

[opgpat]

Objectively speaking, you can't see anything in the deal that will improve our worklife, homelife or renumeration.

d2d uncapped with people getting paid for it who don't even do it and pro-rata for PTers is totally unfair.
uncapped deliveries are an early death for the postie. we will all be looking at 10 year careers before ill health forces us out. No-one will make it past 45.
The pay rises are a total con - pay freeze or cut with inflation the way it is.
3pm LAST LETTER on a Sat means 3:20 finish at the earliest.

Vote Yes if this is really what you want your job to become cause after the 400quid is gone it's gone.

[proper postie]

If this goes through I'm for the off.A giro would be better than this struggle to survive.At least my b ack wouldn't hurt lifting my dole money.

[bunkerland]

Behind the Spin...
from Workers Power Postal Bulletin March 2010

The leadership is pushing alot of myths about the agreement in order to pressure people into voting yes. What's the truth?

MYTH 1: “Save D2D or it goes”

The PEC claims the D2D market is declining, and that they have saved our D2D payment by putting the “average” into pay. This is scare-mongering. Their own figures show that D2D payments declined by a tiny .3% last year (one third of one percent) from £51.6 million to £51.4 million! Not much of a decline then.

In return for lifting the limit on D2D, the deal proposes cutting the Early Shift Allowance (ESA £12.37) and converting all D2D payments into a £20.60 supplement. But right now the average D2D payment is £12.39 (though many workers regularly earn two to three times that), plus ESA it adds up to £24.76. So the deal's new £20.60 supplement is a £4 pay cut. It's even worse for part-timers who will get this pro-rata, despite delivering all the extra leaflets!

The PEC justifies this by arguing that the Early Shift Allowance is declining as only those employed from before 2007 receive it. But you don't raise the pay of a few by cutting it for the many!

CWU tops argue we need to help Royal Mail undercut TNT in the junkmail market by cutting our pay and hiking our workload, so it is more profitable! No thanks.

MYTH 2: “The deal saves jobs”

The PEC claims that the deal will save full-time jobs. In reality it will see a jobs massacre, at at time of high unemployment. Where will those posties pushed out of the business get decent jobs?

CWU tops claim that lifting the D2D cap (three per week max) and cutting its cost will boost traffic and save jobs. They claim that the alternative is Royal Mail taking more D2D anyways but bundling them up into one. Exactly - but they will do this anyways after the deal, so after taking a pay cut this year, we will face further job losses in years to come.

The deal allows the closure of up to half of mail centres, surrendering workers' lives and a quality network to Royal Mail's thirst for profit. Compensation for those affected are better, but many will not be able to travel hours every day to their new location and be forced to out. Many delivery offices will also close.

This real estate sell-off will make Royal Mail bosses a mint, the real reason for these “efficiencies”! It will mean a worse service for the public.

MYTH 3: “Working a full day Saturday means more off”

The union leaders have sold off our early Saturdays so we will finish after 3 or 4 pm - there goes our weekend and Royal Mail's Family Friendly policy! In return CWU bureaucrats say “creative” solutions agreed locally could mean a majority of staff get 1 in 4 Saturdays off or even more.

The only way to achieve this is a 4 day week with 10 hour days (or worse), and the majority of time spent on delivery. That's why the deal caves in to Royal Mail's demands to get rid of the 3.5 hour delivery span.

Royal Mail believes that once it has CD Vans and trolleys in place there is no longer a weight on shoulder issue, so they can hike the delivery time with no health and safety consequences. This deal will break our back.

MYTH 4: “This advances pay”

It advances basic pay…by cutting D2D pay for most delivery staff.

It promises a 6.9% basic pay rise but nearly half (3.5%) comes three years down the road in 2012 - plenty of time
for Royal Mail to decide they can't afford it (and the deal allows them as well as the union to reopen discussions on pay). In the meantime we get 2% this year (about £7 per week before tax) and 1.4% in 2011 (£4 per week).

In total, for most of the 95,500 delivery staff (the majority of postal workers) a big pay cut with D2D taken into account. Add in inflation, tax and the fact that we didn't get a pay rise last year, our pay is falling.

What about the massive lump sum payments, up to £2500 worth?

These are attractive when we are straining to pay bills in the recession. But these are one-off payments, not permanent basic pay. Worse, -almost all of this is not new money. The dividend for Col-leagueShares has been moved forward to give us £400 on signing the deal.

The £1000 bonus is just the final installment of ColleagueShares repackaged. We get all of it only once when we have made the required cuts and changes. It is a one off, the workload is for life! And the company always intended to buy our fake “shares” back.

Real estate windfalls from office closures, massive D2D profits… No wonder Royal Mail loves this agreement!

Great post!


For me this"agreement" has really just confirmed what i've always thought and feared. Unfortunately(for us),the people Royal Mail has negotiating for them are far more intelligent than the people negotiating for the cwu. Sad but true!

It still makes me smile when i see people posting how it will be nice to get the £400. If someone took £400 out your bank account(impossible in my case )and gave it back to you,would you still think you'd gained? Of course not,well that's effectively what Royal Mail are doing!

[fishtank]

For me this"agreement" has really just confirmed what i've always thought and feared. Unfortunately(for us),the people Royal Mail has negotiating for them are far more intelligent than the people negotiating for the cwu. Sad but true!

It still makes me smile when i see people posting how it will be nice to get the £400. If someone took £400 out your bank account(impossible in my case )and gave it back to you,would you still think you'd gained? Of course not,well that's effectively what Royal Mail are doing!

Even worse bunkerland if they took it from your bank account and made you sign an agreement that will take an extra £10 to £20 from your bank account every week before they gave it back to you.

[bogstandard]

lets not forget also that according to HQ RM knocked back in excess of £3million quids worth of D2D

board members are defering their bonuses so what does that say about where they think the company will be after this agreement.
WHO REALLY BENEFITS ? Not me, thats for sure.