ANGARD (ROYAL MAIL) STAFFING SOLUTIONS LIMITED:CWU LTB

[POSTMAN]

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Latest news at 1320 on Wednesday 21 September 2011

Dear Colleague

ANGARD STAFFING SOLUTIONS LIMITED

The purpose of this LTB is to advise Postal Branches that a new company, namely Angard Staffing Solutions, has been set up to provide the Royal Mail Group with their own internal casual/agency workforce.

The new company is registered at Companies House as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Mail Group.

This development raises a number of important issues for the Union and we have told the Royal Mail Group that we want to engage in urgent and proper discussions to fully understand all the possible implications of this development.

The company has agreed to meet the Union and has initially told us that whilst Angard is owned by the Royal Mail Group, recruitment of casual and agency staff will still be undertaken through the Reed Employment Agency. The RMG has stated that the rationale for this development is that it is a more tax efficient way of employing casual labour. They claim this is common practice in many companies.

However, the Union is aware that this may also be linked to the new European Agency Workers’ Directive which becomes law in October 2011. The advice we have received suggests that by taking this step Royal Mail may exempt themselves from the new law and the benefit this provides for agency workers.

As part of understanding the full implications of this new arrangement, the Union will be seeking written assurances covering the intended use of this casual labour resource, the numbers involved and the potential impact on existing staff. We will also want to consider whether or not this provides an opportunity to recruit and negotiate on behalf of agency workers in the future.

We will advise you of further developments in due course.

Any enquiries on the content of this LTB to the DGS (P) Dept.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)

[fishtank]

From October when the AWR kicks in Royal Mail will have to pay agency staff the same rate of pay as permanent staff after 12 weeks.
If these agency staff become permanent employees directly employed by Angard Staffing they will effectively no longer be Agency Staff,not protected by the Agency Workers Regulations and Angard be responsible for setting the pay levels of their own staff effectively undercutting the rest of us.
Another issue will be the length of these "permanent" contracts which could be as little as 4hrs which means that you may spend all week sitting by the phone waiting for a call that never comes an take home £25.
This is very,very bad news.
I'm not buying the tax efficient bollocks...this is the start of the casualisation of Royal Mail.
If ever there was a fight worth fighting this is it.

[not me]

so Agency staff can expect work in (max)12 weeks blocks i assume
recession is a gift to employers with this level of morals

[happy11]

, now the casuals are refusing to sign the new contracts the business dont have the staff ! And they are now going to staff Xmas o dear god help us !!

[Cut Off King]

Royal Mail

written assurances

are worth DIDDLY SQUAT

[pokos27]

this is about cost cutting, i started as a casual for 6 weeks after the period was over I got some holiday pay.
Moya would love everyone to be casual, she must hate paying sick pay and holiday pay to full timers.
I am waiting for meal relief to go, the changes have happened very quickly and will continue.
2012 will be interesting to see how much royal mail has saved, yet how much revenue has been lost due to dsa.

[daveyeff]

From October when the AWR kicks in Royal Mail will have to pay agency staff the same rate of pay as permanent staff after 12 weeks.
If these agency staff become permanent employees directly employed by Angard Staffing they will effectively no longer be Agency Staff,not protected by the Agency Workers Regulations and Angard be responsible for setting the pay levels of their own staff effectively undercutting the rest of us.
Another issue will be the length of these "permanent" contracts which could be as little as 4hrs which means that you may spend all week sitting by the phone waiting for a call that never comes an take home £25.
This is very,very bad news.
I'm not buying the tax efficient bollocks...this is the start of the casualisation of Royal Mail.
If ever there was a fight worth fighting this is it.

does this mean if this company keeps the staff on, then they can get away with paying them 6 quid an hour for as long as they are working for them.??

[Lincox]

Could they possibly transfer all of our contracts over to this company, and then just pay us at our current rate until the TUPE rules run out and then we get paid £6 per hour.

[Cut Off King]

Could they possibly transfer all of our contracts over to this company, and then just pay us at our current rate until the TUPE rules run out and then we get paid £6 per hour.

If we all got swapped over to £6 an hour, then the vast majority would leave RM

After all you could work at a shop, leaning over a counter for half the day and still pick up £6ph.... A LOT less stressfull !

[Lincox]

Not as easy as it sounds Cut Off. My daughter left uni in July and as well as applying for jobs she has studied for, she has applied for countless local jobs in restaurants, pubs, shops and many more low paid, full and part time jobs. The labour market is totally in the favour of the employer at this time and getting any kind of job is a work of art.

[Cut Off King]

Lincox, speaking from personal experiance, I have multiple jobs over my working life and have always been able to find work, not always a job that I wanted at the time, but wages to tide me over ( inc. the 80's when unemployment was at an all time high 3.5 million under Thatcher ! )

I suppose its because I try to adapt to anything , I have worked in shops, warehouses, trade & retail, building sites, food, offices, self employment , indoor & outdoor and more...

Don't think that you can't do anything other than postal work, because you can

People think that postal work requires no brains, but many join, few stay the course they can't handle the mental & physical strain of working unsocial & long hours, remebering every street / walk in a city and sorting the mail ( IP / OP )

Most of the people that work within RM are NOT dumb, they are bright and could easly turn there hand to other work

There is life outside RM

If you are forced out, you'll find work

Be positive

[Lincox]

Like you Cut Off, I have always found work and have had various jobs during my long working life and I remain positive. I do not rely just on Royal Mail for my income (part Time worker), so I agree with you that somewhere out there, is work that you can do. But I also do think that times have changed dramatically for youngsters looking for their first job. I believe the unemployment level is far greater now than in the eighties, it is just being made to look much lower by successive governments. Well paid jobs are far much harder to find than in the eighties. It is difficult to find any employer that is willing to pay a decent days pay for a decent days work. Today on the tv news, they were saying that a family of four bringing in £347 per week are now regarded as being in the poverty trap. Billy Brag on Question Time last week spoke about low pay and this being the main reason why there is now growth in the economy because there is no money to spend on consumer items. Better wages will allow people to spend more and thus invest in the economy and in turn this will lead to more jobs as companies see their order books starting to fill up. You must also remember that since the eighties, the employment market has been opened up to countries in the EC, and this has led to less jobs being available for our own nationals.

[Dorset Plodder]

Agree with you Lincox. A Part Timer in RM can no longer rely on them to pay all their Bills. It breaks my heart every time our Managers trot out the same old waffle "Royal Mail hasn't got any money......It's the Economic Crisis...... It's just a Business Decision, you mustn't think it's Personal!" I always say, "I'll remember to tell that to my Bank Manager!

I foresee a time when Part Timers have got other jobs, to pick up the slack, and when asked, "We've got another Duty to cover..Do you want some overtime"? They'll be able to tell the DIM to poke it! They've to get away on time as their next job starts at 1400....In fact they won't be able to complete and will have to cut off! What do you want me to do with the last 2 bags? I know a few people that are working on it.

[kawoxux]

Like you Cut Off, I have always found work and have had various jobs during my long working life and I remain positive. I do not rely just on Royal Mail for my income (part Time worker), so I agree with you that somewhere out there, is work that you can do. But I also do think that times have changed dramatically for youngsters looking for their first job. I believe the unemployment level is far greater now than in the eighties, it is just being made to look much lower by successive governments. Well paid jobs are far much harder to find than in the eighties. It is difficult to find any employer that is willing to pay a decent days pay for a decent days work. Today on the tv news, they were saying that a family of four bringing in £347 per week are now regarded as being in the poverty trap. Billy Brag on Question Time last week spoke about low pay and this being the main reason why there is now growth in the economy because there is no money to spend on consumer items. Better wages will allow people to spend more and thus invest in the economy and in turn this will lead to more jobs as companies see their order books starting to fill up. You must also remember that since the eighties, the employment market has been opened up to countries in the EC, and this has led to less jobs being available for our own nationals.

I think this is shown by the figures for 16-24 year olds. im in that bracket and its very, very hard to get anything. Im employed directly by RM and its far better pay and conditions than Id get elsewhere, for sure.

[mistytom]

Please how do I contact Angard.
I got a job to work in Royalmail in Bristol after the CRB check through an agency but unfortunately I had to relocate to Yorkshire. the offer was last week.
I have tried to see if this offer can be transferred to Leeds/Normanton - but no luck as the agency is only based in Bristol.

please what can I do?