Sorting office faces axe with loss of 400 jobs

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/headlines/Sort ... 6349793.jp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

POSTAL workers were left reeling today after Royal Mail delivered the news that Doncaster main sorting office is facing the axe.

Around 400 Doncaster sorting and distribution jobs will be lost if the firm goes ahead with plans to transfer mail sorting to its Sheffield centre in 2012.

Although Royal Mail says there will be no compulsory redundancies, union officials believe only a small number will want to move across South Yorkshire to the city.

It is understood the existing mail centre in Middle Bank is not big enough to provide capacity for new machinery which will be brought in under rationalisation plans.

Officers of the Communication Workers' Union believe Royal Mail should make more effort to find an alternative location within the borough without transferring sorting almost 25 miles away.

If the Middle Bank closure goes ahead the company will need to find other premises from which to distribute the letters and parcels that have been sorted in Sheffield.

The decision, announced a few days ago, was said to have been like "a bolt from the blue" for the postal workers, and staff were left "deeply disillusioned," according to CWU branch secretary Julia West.

Union delegates from across the north will be meeting in Darlington later this week to plan a strategy to fight the proposals.

Gavin Aylott, chairman of the Doncaster and District Amalgamated branch of the CWU, said members were deeply disappointed by the proposals and they believed Royal Mail had not looked properly at other options.

"We believe Middle Bank staff had previously adopted new procedures and provided a good service and have made changes which should have given us a good chance of staying open, so we're extremely upset and angry about the proposals," he said. "It's been a slap in the face. We don't understand why they are doing it. It seems to us the better you are at doing the job, the worse off you are."

Royal Mail had a policy of no compulsory redundancies, since many Doncaster staff work four hours a day it would not be worth them travelling to and from Sheffield.

"I don't know how many wouldn't transfer because everyone's a bit dazed but some older people have said they won't go," he added.

He hopes the union can offer alternative proposals and suggested a large enough building could be found in Doncaster for a new sorting office.

Doncaster MPs Rosie Winterton and Caroline Flint have both expressed their concerns about the proposal. In a joint statement they said: "We are seeking a meeting with Royal Mail and the CWU to establish the full implications of this move."

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "In line with the national agreement Royal Mail has reached with the CWU, we are reviewing our processing and some delivery operations in Yorkshire and the North East of England to make sure we have the right sites to accommodate the world class technology and equipment being rolled out as part of our £2 billion modernisation programme, and to adapt to a market in which 13 million fewer letters are sent every day compared to five years ago and in which volumes continue to fall.

"Both the CWU and Royal Mail recognise that there will a reduction in jobs which, if our proposals go ahead, we expect would amount to around 800 fewer roles from the total of nearly 18,000 people we employ in Yorkshire and the North East. However, our intention is always to make changes without recourse to compulsory redundancies in line with our track record in making similar changes elsewhere."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

In a nutshell this article highlights the problem faced by MC now and probably DO members in the future.

If you don't want to move, or the costs of doing so outweigh the benefits then is your redundancy really a voluntary one.

Or to put it another way the much Vaunted CWU/RM agreement of no compulsory redundancies is good on paper and worth aiming for, but not much benefit to those facing a relocation or new role in real life.

Nice try though CWU.

[Wiggins79]

For the CWU to say that this is "a bolt from the blue" is a complete joke. For the entire 7 years I've been working for RM there has always been a steady stream of rumour and conjecture that Doncaster MC would be closed. Perhaps the fact that this wonderful deal the CWU negotiated hard for so long for, and then went round trying to convince members how wonderful it was turns out to be a heap of dog-doo, and that will also be "a bolt from the blue" to the CWU.

[norbert]

For the CWU to say that this is "a bolt from the blue" is a complete joke. For the entire 7 years I've been working for RM there has always been a steady stream of rumour and conjecture that Doncaster MC would be closed. Perhaps the fact that this wonderful deal the CWU negotiated hard for so long for, and then went round trying to convince members how wonderful it was turns out to be a heap of dog-doo, and that will also be "a bolt from the blue" to the CWU.

half the rumours tend to come from the managers .....to motivate people :