First off, after all the disputes etc overpay on Friday, obviously not only was I upset, but every other casual working at the Mail center and even the full time staff/management all had something to say on the matter. After generally slagging off Angard etc, I was given information as to how Angard came to be under Royal Mail. Apparently a few years ago, one of the top women in Royal Mail took Voluntary Redundancy and walked away with a lovely pay check for doing so. This money she used to create her own company (Guess what!?!) under the umbrella of Royal Mail.
Now for another bit of information/theorising undertaken by my managers at the Mail Center that night....
Angard are paid by Royal Mail, then keep a percentage and then pay us.. But once Royal Mail have paid Angard, before it comes to us, where is that money? Answer - It's in their bank account, earning them a hefty interest. So they're taking there time to pay us, because our time is their money.
Right my story...
Started work on 29th November on the Night shift 22:00 - 06:00 Mon-Fri. Have previously taken the same position on the same shift two years running, never had a problem before, loved my co-workers and thoroughly enjoyed the job, hence the constant returning. First year of work I earnt £7.71 an hour, second year £7.90 and there was no difference between the age of casuals and rate of pay. This year, was led to believe rates of pay would be the same. First day into work I find out that in fact I'm earning £5.48 an hour, but with possibility of shift allowance. Last Friday comes along, and I'm looking forward to pay day (Weren't we all?) and along with everyone else was dismayed to discover that I had no pay. So spent Friday morning along with probably half of Angard employees trying to reach the elusive company via telephone. After three hours of trying (bearing in mind I had not yet slept after the previous nights shift) I finally managed to get through to the payroll office. I expressed my concern over my missing money and was informed that they would fast track my payment as an emergency and promised the money would be in my account by the early afternoon of Friday, or at absolute worst scenario by 00:00 that night. So I waited... Checked my balance just before work, Still no pay. I was extremely pissed off when I got to work and went straight to my managers, who informed me that they were already aware of an issue due to other mail centers having already walked out and they went to contact Angard themselves. Later on that night, they came back with an e-mail from Angard, basically blaming everything on 1.Human Error, 2.Misgiven bank details and 3.Royal Mail not sending off our time sheets (As you can imagine, my Managers were pissed at that). The e-mail also said there would be no shift allowance and people would not be paid until Friday apart from some Emergency payments on Monday. Skip through to today, and I've rung Angard a total of 63 times and still not once have they picked up.. My frustration is unmeasurable. Is anyone else considering just not going back to work? Because although I cannot afford to live without the money, I also cannot be in a contract that my employer is not honouring.
/Rant Over
Barbie
, if anyone's left completely skint through late pay there's always a Crisis Loan from DWP. You can certainly get one if you just signed off the dole to start on the Post, & I think you can even get one if you didn't. You claim over the phone [0800 032 7952]. A long wait listening to Vivaldi but, unlike Angard, they do actually answer. It takes most of a day to sort it out; you have to wait by the phone for up to an hour to get a decision & then get to the Job Centre to pick up a Giro, then off to a Post Office to cash it, so you'll probably miss a shift. When you phone, you have to prove you're completely potless, eg no money left on gas/electric, down to 1 tin of beans, even run out of toothpaste etc etc. There are a few forums like this online about what to say and what not to say which are worth a look before you ring.
I hope you're going to claim those back! Although, given the struggles you're going through, I'm not sure it's worth the energy 