Pressurising staff

[Lincox]

Rest breaks - a break during your working day

As an adult worker (over 18), you will normally have the right to a 20 minute rest break if you are expected to work more than six hours at a stretch.

A lunch or coffee break can count as your rest break. Additional breaks might be given by your contract of employment. There is no statutory right to 'smoking breaks'.

The requirements are:


•the break must be in one block

•it cannot be taken off one end of the working day - it must be somewhere in the middle

•you are allowed to spend it away from the place on your employer's premises where you work

•your employer can say when the break must be taken, as long as it meets these conditions
Hope this helps Clash

[Eric Cantona]

Rest breaks - a break during your working day

As an adult worker (over 18), you will normally have the right to a 20 minute rest break if you are expected to work more than six hours at a stretch.

A lunch or coffee break can count as your rest break. Additional breaks might be given by your contract of employment. There is no statutory right to 'smoking breaks'.

The requirements are:


•the break must be in one block

•it cannot be taken off one end of the working day - it must be somewhere in the middle

•you are allowed to spend it away from the place on your employer's premises where you work

•your employer can say when the break must be taken, as long as it meets these conditions
Hope this helps Clash

•your employer can say when the break must be taken, as long as it meets these conditions

Exactly! the employer say's when you take it..

[Lincox]

If you read it Eric it also says the break must be somewhere in the middle of the shift. ie around the 4 hour mark if you are on an 8 hour shift, not after 2 hours.

[Eric Cantona]

If you read it Eric it also says the break must be somewhere in the middle of the shift. ie around the 4 hour mark if you are on an 8 hour shift, not after 2 hours.

I Have read it Lincox in this thread. http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 2&start=15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So how do I make the D.O.M change his mind? Only my union rep tells me if we all take the break in the middle we will all finish later? basically he was not interested..... so we are snookered...

[Lincox]

I do not understand what your rep is talking about. How can having your break in the middle of the day as against at the start of the day, have any impact on what time you finish. A break will only have an impact on finishing time if you leave it to the end of the day. If you are happy having your break early on, then carry on as you are. If you want your break in the middle of the day, take a copy of the employment rights in to your Dom and tell him that,s when you want your break, for health and safety reasons. He has no authority to override employment law.

[superteamu10]

We have a really crap office where about 3 of us actually do our job as per the 318 and yet despite rarely going over or cutting off as I have to to get a lift back to the office, I have been called in the office today to claim I have a slow prep rate, but it is because I cut off yesterday.
Bearing in mind this week we have 6 D2D's which includes a big paper and one with a pen in. No time left after prepping D2D's in the first half hour to do any letters, come off IPS at 7.15 to 7.30 and then finish IPS at 8.30 which is also break on a Monday.
By the time I was driven up to my delivery when I was ready, it left me with less than 3 hours, so no surprise that I cut off and of course I told them before I went out.
They said they had counted my mail on 2 previous days recently and it wasn't up to standard. Ironically those days, as I do most days, I completed okay.
They only called me in today to bully me as I had cut off yesterday and claimed I had been sorting at 11 items a minute.
I used to bunce continuously at one time so I know I am not slow, so I said that if you think I did 11 then most people will be less than that and also I was led to believe that the union does not recognize the managements sorting rates as there are too many variables such as D2D's in fitting and other mail in your fitting etc.
I did also pass their own tests when they sent somebody to our office.
Basically because I am one of only a few working to our 318, we are getting victimized.
I am getting to think that unless you have the majority of the office working together, it is very difficult, not to mention stressful trying to stand up for what is right.

[BT2010]

We have a really crap office where about 3 of us actually do our job as per the 318 and yet despite rarely going over or cutting off as I have to to get a lift back to the office, I have been called in the office today to claim I have a slow prep rate, but it is because I cut off yesterday.
Bearing in mind this week we have 6 D2D's which includes a big paper and one with a pen in. No time left after prepping D2D's in the first half hour to do any letters, come off IPS at 7.15 to 7.30 and then finish IPS at 8.30 which is also break on a Monday.
By the time I was driven up to my delivery when I was ready, it left me with less than 3 hours, so no surprise that I cut off and of course I told them before I went out.
They said they had counted my mail on 2 previous days recently and it wasn't up to standard. Ironically those days, as I do most days, I completed okay.
They only called me in today to bully me as I had cut off yesterday and claimed I had been sorting at 11 items a minute.
I used to bunce continuously at one time so I know I am not slow, so I said that if you think I did 11 then most people will be less than that and also I was led to believe that the union does not recognize the managements sorting rates as there are too many variables such as D2D's in fitting and other mail in your fitting etc.
I did also pass their own tests when they sent somebody to our office.
Basically because I am one of only a few working to our 318, we are getting victimized.
I am getting to think that unless you have the majority of the office working together, it is very difficult, not to mention stressful trying to stand up for what is right.

i applaud you brother

[Lincox]

I also praise you for standing up to these w..kers. How did they assess that you had only sorted 11 items per minute. Did a manager come and stand by your frame and count?

[superteamu10]

Our DOM has just been promoted to a 4, but has been a line manager in our place for a few years now. She is basically a little Hitler who has no people skills at all and no common sense. It's like having a robot in charge.

Anyway this counting the prep is totally flawed. I will give you an example of one of the days they counted my mail. I came in at 5.45 and cleared down. I had 5 D2D's which amounted to 400 items put into my fitting leaving me with say 10 mins left if I am being generous before the IPS.

We stop at 7.15 to clear down and are called back up at 7.30 leaving me with no more than 10 mins prep time.
We then finish at 8.25 and after clearing down I go for my break on a Monday at 8.30.
I would have had by then just 35 mins prep time.

They said I was sorting at a rate of 11 per minute, yet they excluded the whole of the 400 D2D's for that day which is an increase of more than 10 already, but they are very selective of course.
Actually if most people came in on time and had a fitting full of mail with D2D's as well I think you would do well to be above 10 anyway.

It is something that is not required as most have shown they can throw off 25 letters or so into an empty fitting. It should stand to reason that if you could only manage say 15 then you may need a bit of help, but if you did 26 then clearly you have proven that you are not slow.

If this was a court case Royal Mail would be laughed out of court.

It happened that day because she had a knee jerk reaction to the fact she had walked past my fitting and saw all the mail and asked where I was. When told I was on my break she said that she hadn't told me to go up, not that she ever does anyway as there are only 3 of us normally, but she had lost her temper and thought she would get me one way or another.

As it happens I didn't need to cut off and that is the other point. Many people are booking overtime and she isn't counting their mail , but she either has it in for me because I am working to my 318 or and maybe as well, I cut off.
She then has to go out with the other managers and do this, so I know why she has it in for me, but it would make more sense to help me with my prep.

I have taken out a grievance against her and our local union is having a meeting with ER on Friday to discuss this type of harassment.

We all have slackers in work, we know that, but this DOM is no much like a robot she cannot differentiate between the two as she has been taught to believe that we are all 'at it '.

I really think the Union needs to get a grip on this at the highest level and stop this unagreed, flawed and bullying practice, which is an abuse of power.