My story.

[loobyloo6]

Written on Monday 28th November 2011

I am currently unemployed but was told back in September, by the Job Centre of recruiters taking on staff for Christmas – amongst them, Royal Mail.

I applied for a job as a mail sorter on 25 September 2011. On 5 October 2011 I received an email from Angard Staffing (Recruitment Agency) inviting me for interview/assessment on 18 October 2011. I was advised to take along several forms of identification, passport size photo etc on that day.

On 18 October 2011 I duly turned up at the Birmingham Royal Mail Centre, St Stephens Street, Aston, Birmingham along with approximately 25-30 other candidates. The interviewer went through my forms of identification and was told verbally that I would have a job providing I passed the vetting procedure and that this would be confirmed in writing within 3 weeks. I was also given a provisional offer letter with the dates of work quoted as 28/11/2011-23/12/2011. I was asked which shift I was interested in working – I chose 2pm-10pm.

Having heard nothing within the allotted time, on 17 November 2011 I emailed Angard stating my concern at not having been contacted. No reply was forthcoming.

In order to expedite matters, I decided to phone Angard. I went online to look for a website for them to obtain their phone number (there was nothing on the provisional offer letter) – there was no website (there is now!). Having searched for Angard to no avail, I came across Royal Mail chat (http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/community/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and found Angard contact details that way. I was also horrified to realize that it was not just me having problems, there were people in Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, all across the country in fact.

On 21 November 2011 I spent 2 hours on the phone trying to speak to someone at Angard. Finally when I did speak to a person, my details were taken and I was told that someone from the ‘christmas team’ would phone back. They did not phone back.

The following day, I emailed Angard again having been totally unsuccessful in getting any response to phoning them – despite spending the whole day trying to do so.

On the 23 November 2011, again having received no response to my email, I managed to talk to someone called ***** at Angard. He could not give me any relevant information with regards to whether I was being given a job or not, so I requested to speak to a manager. I was told the manager(s) were busy, so ***** took my details and promised me that a manager would phone back.

There was of course no call back, and having looked again at the Royal Mail chat, I became very depressed and disheartened at a situation where people were clearly being messed around and the confusion as to whether jobs were to be provided or not. There were stories of people turning up to work to be turned away again – these were people who’d received texts and emails confirming their start date! At this point I gave up in trying to contact Angard and instead checked the forum all the time and contributed to the comments.

On 28 November 2011, the day I thought I should be starting my job, I called Angard again and spoke to a man called *******. He told me (basically) that Angard had given out too many provisional offer letters and that I was on a waiting list. He couldn’t give me an answer as to whether I would in fact be given any work or when I would be contacted, though he did say I would receive an email or text message at some point. I queried whether I could be waiting 3 weeks to be given one week’s work – he was unable to answer this. My mother suggested that I still go along to the Birmingham Royal Mail Centre at the original time (1.45pm) to see if I could get any answers from Royal Mail staff and because it was clear that Angard were disorganized and confusion abounded.

I turned up at 1.45pm and was directed by Reception to go to the hospitality room – there were two desks at the front of the room. I approached the staff at these desks and told the staff member that I did not have confirmation from Angard – he directed me to check a list to see if my name was on it – it was not. Despite this I was given a high visibility vest and told to wait. The manager (****) then came in and explained to everyone (there were 25 other candidates) that our names were not on the sheet and he was trying to get hold of the manager at Angard (**/********). He took all our names and left the room to make the phonecall. We were all asked if we’d had confirmation of a job and the majority of people stated that they had passed their security checks/vetting checks. We were then told to leave the room and another staff member told us to go home and to contact Angard. There were some questions asked of this individual and he confirmed that they did indeed need staff but that they could not employ us at this time because of the confusion with Angard.

My mother, who had been waiting for me suggested I take the details of some of the other candidates as we intended to inform the press about this debacle. One young man showed me a screen shot of his online application which said that he was hired!

We returned home and my mother rang Angard and asked to speak to a manager. She spoke to ******* who informed her that it was Royal Mail’s fault – that they had initially been told that Royal Mail would require far more staff (approx. 250) than they subsequently decided they needed (80). She went to great lengths to say that she would do her utmost to ensure my name was put on the waiting list – my mother informed her that I’d already been told, earlier in the day, that my name was already on the waiting list. ******* was apologetic but was not shouldering any of the responsibility, on behalf of Angard, for the lack of communication, anxiety and distress, time wasted, of people nationwide applying for jobs with Royal Mail. She could not answer my mother’s query as to why people were being told they were hired when clearly they weren’t or, how they’d chosen the fortunate individuals who had been given jobs.

My mother attempted to phone Royal Mail in Birmingham to question them but we were unable to access a telephone number that was not purely to do with Royal Mail services.

I have now, minutes following my mother’s phone call to Angard, received an email telling me that I am hired and start date agreed – I have not got a start date and am not optimistic about being given a job.

I feel very strongly that what is happening should be publicized – there are lots of us without work doing our best to find jobs and not be a burden on the tax payers – the Job Centre person I spoke to on Friday was not in the slightest bit interested in how I was being treated – I’m a young person and I feel like no-one cares.

Since Monday 28th November 2011:

Following on from being sent home by Royal Mail – my mother contacted the Daily Mail (this newspaper because my aunt used to work there) – they were not interested in any story. She then also contacted the local Birmingham Post and Mail and left a voicemail message. The next day (29/11/11), I contacted the Birmingham newspaper group and spoke to a reporter from the Birmingham Mail – he appeared interested in the story and arranged to send a photographer to my house the following day (30/11/11).

On 02/12/2011 at 9.41am, I received a text from Reed.co.uk – ‘Good morning, this is a message from Angard Staffing. We currently have five places for the Solihull Delivery Office on 03/12/2011 from 8.00am to 2.00pm. If you would like to be booked in for this shift please call Mark on 01604 608291.’
I called this number and was told by Mark that the shift was a one-off (6 hours including an unpaid break of approx 40 minutes). I declined this shift due to the hassle of signing off and on again for Job Seekers Allowance.

At 2.12pm on the same day, I received a phone call from ****** ***** (Talent and Succession Manager at Royal Mail) – she appeared to be seeking confirmation of what my experience with Royal Mail and Angard had been. I’m assuming she was doing this as a result of being contacted by a reporter from the Birmingham Mail. She gave me her contact details and assured me that I would get a response if I subsequently contacted her. I emailed her approximately 2 hours later with questions I wanted answered. She has not, to date, responded.

On Saturday 03/12/11, a short article appeared in the Birmingham Mail.

Monday 05/12/11, I received three comments on my thread of the Royal Mail Chat, who all said they’d been told they would be starting work (at the Birmingham Mail Centre) the following day – these were all people who’d been turned away, along with me, on 28/11/11 and one of whom had been quoted in the Birmingham Mail article.

Update..

Thursday 08/12/11 at 6pm – I received a phone call from a woman at Angard asking why I had not been attending my shifts! I explained to ***** that I had been turned away and she seemed very confused and could not give me an explanation.

Friday 09/12/11 - I started work at Birmingham Mail Centre. This was not without issue because yet again my name was not on the list. However, my ID card (which is not the same as everyone else has) states on the back that I am working from 28/11/2011-23/12/2011.

[pottsi23]

same story different depot, my original time slot for my first interview was 3.30pm, turned up 15 minutes early only to be told there was a 4.5hr waiting time, waited and waited then spent 10 minutes with an angard rep who gave me a provisional offer and told me to turn up at depot on agreed time and date and i would have work, this was all back in october to date i have not had a single second of employment from them, it does nothing for your confidence in the employment search, kick people when there down angards motto.

[coxie]

How they treat people like they don't even matter is beyond me, shouldnt be allowed to get away with it

[Straight4ward]

loobyloo6,
You should send this to Royal Mail's Chief Executive Officer, Moya Greene.

Quoting from our in-house newspaper The Courier " Moya is keen to hear from you through the Just Say it channel. Moya will reply to all who take part. To get in touch, email moya.greene@royalmail.com


Your post is well written, you've kept it factual and you haven't allowed emotion to cloud the issue (though you have been sorely provoked).

At the very least you deserve an apology and an explanation but, hopefully, you might actually get some employment.

Good luck with this and please let us know how you get on.

[POSTMAN]

Had to edit the email address,i got busted by RM for giving out the just say it one,have put in Moya's addy which is in the public domain anyway.

[loobyloo6]

Thank you very much, Straight4ward. I hadn't even thought about emailing Moya Greene! I've just sent her an email.

I will keep everyone updated, hopefully something positive will eventually come out of this whole crappy situation.

[21CP]

loobyloo6,
You should send this to Royal Mail's Chief Executive Officer, Moya Greene.

Quoting from our in-house newspaper The Courier " Moya is keen to hear from you through the Just Say it channel. Moya will reply to all who take part. To get in touch, email moya.greene@royalmail.com


Your post is well written, you've kept it factual and you haven't allowed emotion to cloud the issue (though you have been sorely provoked).

At the very least you deserve an apology and an explanation but, hopefully, you might actually get some employment.

Good luck with this and please let us know how you get on.

OH good i was looking for that

[madcyril71]

Thank you very much, Straight4ward. I hadn't even thought about emailing Moya Greene! I've just sent her an email.

I will keep everyone updated, hopefully something positive will eventually come out of this whole crappy situation.

lets all hope you get a email back