Payment for polling cards...20pence, EACH!

[POSTMAN]

There was confusion about DSA last year i think,there was an LTB about it.I'm sure the payment still stands.

[POSTMAN]

Dear Dale

DELIVERY OF ELECTION MATERIAL

Thank you for your letter dated 10th April 2008 regarding the delivery of poll cards received via downstream access (DSA).

I have to say I am amazed at your interpretation of the national agreement. The paragraph is quite clear in that it covers poll cards and excludes proxy poll cards; nowhere in the agreement is there any reference to DSA being excluded or any other type of poll card for that matter.

The truth is that Royal Mail issued unagreed guidelines to its managers without any prior consultation with the CWU, after we had reached an agreement that included very clear words covering poll cards.

You refer to discussions in 2005. Once again the truth is that in the main those discussions took place after you had agreed the wording of the national agreement and after you had issued your unagreed guidelines. I wrote to John Powell on the 12th April 2005 to make that point.

The discussion around poll cards prior to finalising the national agreement on the 6th April was specifically about the proxy poll cards and about the volumes. It was here that it was confirmed that they would arrive in the general post and the volumes would be minimal, hence our acceptance that they would be excluded.
We never discussed DSA items, and I have to say it is not something that has been raised by Royal Mail since bearing in mind the increasing volumes of mail being handled by DSA.

Putting all that to one side there is no reason why Royal Mail should refuse to make a payment for the delivery of poll cards; they still have to be prepped and delivered regardless of how they arrive in the delivery office, which is exactly the point we made in the discussions and why that is reflected in the wording of pargagraph 2 of the national agreement which I have reproduced below for ease of reference.

2) Scope of this Agreement

This agreement covers all addressed and un-addressed free election communications marked “ELECTION COMMUNICATION” and Poll Cards (excluding Proxy Poll Cards). It replaces all previous national and / or local agreements covering the delivery of election materials and poll cards from the date of this agreement.

[celerycelery]

We are gettting 3p an item for them.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Found it - this partly explains why different rates are paid in different offices: http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... nt#p157410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

4) Payments

All existing local payments covering the delivery of election material as stated in paragraph 2 above will remain in place, and in accordance with this agreement, with the following exceptions.
1. The minimum payment for delivering election material will be 3p per item.
2. The maximum payment for delivering election material will be 6.6p per item.
3. All hours based schemes will be converted to pence per item schemes and then the criteria in 1 and 2 above will be applied. Where delivery offices have introduced a SDD revision since the last delivery of election material then the following formula will be applied prior to the criteria in 1 and 2 above being applied.

Previous no. Walks X O/T hours per walk e.g. 35 X 2 hrs hours = 3.5hrs
Current no. of Walks 20

4. In those Units where there are two payments e.g. 4.5p for the first three parties and 1.67p for additional parties the minimum payment will become 3p with any payments over this amount being retained.
5. In those Units where there is a mixture of hours and pence per item based payments the process in 4) 3. above will be followed for the hours based element, with the process in 4) 4. above then being applied.

Where election material items exceed 20g in weight a further 0.5p will be payable.

These revised payments apply from the date of this agreement and cover all election material as identified above. They are payable on an individual basis, and are not affected by any collective criteria/responsibility.

[Dorset Plodder]

Agree with your summary Belle, we take it for granted he's taking the Piss but I think it's often through his own ignorance of what's going on within the Business.
Cheers for the info TBT. Surprise Surprise Shafted by RM again. What a bloody shambles!
If you can't make a profit from a Business when you're conning your employees out of SO MANY types of allowances and payments there's definately no way you could make it work if you were being HONEST and above board.

[mailmonkey]

We get 3p, office 6 miles away gets 6p.

Their workers sometimes get sent to cover at our place. What should they be claiming? I think they claim 3 p but double the number ;)

[nOfailmylife]

WE GOT 3P
NOTTINGHAM

[MAILMAN84]

We got 3p but the DOM was nice enough to refuse to pay any overtime all week for the whopping £20 or so we got. Scum.