IF YOU TOLERATE THIS...

[Guevarista]

... Then your children will be next. Or, more likely, we will ALL be next.

I've been a long time admirer, and occasional contributor to RMC, but have to admit that over the past few weeks I've seen my faith in this free, fair, forum peel away.

Why?

Because many members of RMC have failed to show unconditional support to the poor b*****s 'employed' by Angard, who are working alongside us over the Christmas period.

I've long given up hope of RM behaving in a civilised way, and have becoming increasingly miffed by the capitulatory, possibly collaborative, stance of the CWU. But I am astonished by the lack of support throughout the forum for a group of OUR COLLEAGUES, who are being paid (when they are being paid, that is), minimum wage for doing the same job that we all do, at the most pressured time of the year.

Postman, you deserve a deal of praise for the 'unofficial' Angard forum, but unfortunately the fact that it's in some way removed from the main RMC site has just further served to ghettoise the Angard temps. References to the plight of Christmas staff should be central to the main forum - '2010 and beyond the bounds of human decency', perhaps.

I hope that the title of this thread stirs something within the hearts and souls of all postal workers on the forum, but above and beyond that, I hope that it acts as a moral wake-up call to the few forum members who seem to be driven by their own self interest, or by their slavish devotion to a trades union that seems to have forgotten the interests of its members.

Merry Christmas, EVERYONE.

[north london driver]

sorry if you dont like our attitude to angard employed staff but a lot of
royal mail staff on full-time contracts have been putting up with crap for years.
angard staff keep telling us you lot must be mad working for royal mail, and then start
saying that there only doing this job for a few months until they can get a real job or
go to university or travel the world and how many thousands they can earn a month at
other jobs.
yes it is wrong how royal mail set up angard to pay lower wages and s**t conditions
but to listern to there employers telling us we are the low of the low is beyond me.
yes we all should be on the same rate of pay and conditions should be the same and on
full-time contracts but at the moment royal mail do what they want.
good luck in working for angard
and merry xmas to you.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

...
Postman, you deserve a deal of praise for the 'unofficial' Angard forum, but unfortunately the fact that it's in some way removed from the main RMC site has just further served to ghettoise the Angard temps. References to the plight of Christmas staff should be central to the main forum - '2010 and beyond the bounds of human decency', perhaps.

I think you are being a little too negative, there are many sub-sections to this very informative forum, so that posts in relation to the many different branches of RM are relavant eg. post offfice workers; mail processing; delivery staff; health and safety etc. By giving the Angard employees their own section, they are able to better spread the word on their awful lack of payment/ incorrect payment situation and hopefully find ways to get this awful mess resolved. Mass sit-ins and walk-outs do seem to have finally got the attention of both Angard and RM during this last week.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I am confused

sorry if you dont like our attitude to angard employed staff but a lot of
royal mail staff on full-time contracts have been putting up with crap for years.

Yes I agree we have been putting up with crap for years but it does not mean we cant support Angard casuals.

angard staff keep telling us you lot must be mad working for royal mail, and then start saying that there only doing this job for a few months until they can get a real job or go to university or travel the world and how many thousands they can earn a month at other jobs.

We all say at some point we must be mad working for Royal Mail don't we. The rest sounds like ambition.

yes it is wrong how royal mail set up angard to pay lower wages and s**t conditions

Agree

but to listern to there employers telling us we are the low of the low is beyond me.

Anyone saying that is in the wrong but thats the comments of a few or even many individuals - you can't , in my mind, use this as an excuse to say what has happened to Angard casuals is either acceptable or should be ignored

yes we all should be on the same rate of pay and conditions should be the same and on
full-time contracts but at the moment royal mail do what they want.
good luck in working for angard
and merry xmas to you.

Again I agree but as I said at the start of my post I am confused as to whether you are saying what has happened is wrong, or that because of comments of individuals working for Angard you really don't give a monkey's..... or whats happened is wrong but we can't do anything about it.

Confused.

[fishtank]

I'm with Guevarista to a certain extent.
Certain posters who usually have a lot to say seem to have nothing to say over Angard.
Considering the havoc they have wreaked and the threat this kind of business model poses to all of us in the future i find that a bit surprising to say the least.
I think some may be understandably in denial whereas others may be following the HQ line which appears to be do little and say even less.

I will say one thing though that i've said before...you cannot seek to control or direct a forum...to make people post certain ways,silence other posters or ultimately make members post on subjects they don't want to so while i'm surprised by the behaviour of some...it's their choice.

[clashcityrocker]

The casualisation of the workforce, the ongoing attacks on our terms and conditions and the total disrespect for one section of the workforce are things we should all be concerned about. This is very probably the future we are facing.
The casuals, I imagine, are virtually all in processing. I think the majority of RMC members are in delivery.
We have no direct contact with what is going on.

We had agency staff on delivery a few years ago to cover staff shortages. It was an unmitigated disaster.

[DGP1]

I'm not too sure what we're supposed to do or say, most of us have been appalled by the treatment of them but I don't know what we're supposed to do.

[music4essex]

No I don't torelate this,
BUT most things that Royal Mail implement to save money seems to backfire and cost them a lot more in bad press bit like our Park N Loop.

The angard staff should not have been treated in this way, but how many of us are treated like s**t by RM .

I hope they sort it out for them because getting no money is not right especially before xmas.

If like me I read all the of the forum even though I am part of the blue shirts section

I have had a shift week off so back to the grime

Essex mum

[kawoxux]

The casualisation of the workforce, the ongoing attacks on our terms and conditions and the total disrespect for one section of the workforce are things we should all be concerned about. This is very probably the future we are facing.
The casuals, I imagine, are virtually all in processing. I think the majority of RMC members are in delivery.
We have no direct contact with what is going on.

We had agency staff on delivery a few years ago to cover staff shortages. It was an unmitigated disaster.

Think thats the main thing. People in delivery dont really have any contacct with it. If I hadn't gone in the Angard forum I would never know about any of the stuff thats going on, and if I hadnt come on this forum at all I probabaly would never have even heard of Angard.

[tonyhendrix]

I dont like to hear about anyone being treated unfairley it saddens and annoys me in equal measures , but on the positive at least some of them are sticking together and taking direct action, and i wish them all the best . we seem unabe to protect ourselves .

[Martin Walsh]

It is unacceptable the way Royal Mail have treated Angard casuals. it just demonstrates how Royal Mail would really treat a non unionised workforce.

Royal Mail set up Angard to save money paying different agency companies. They now pay causal staff a disgraceful £6.50 per hour with no extras. Twice in successive weeks hundreds of casuals did not get paid on time , on Friday they had to wait for a BACs transfer at 3 and of course they were angry.

John Duncan is a director of the company and should hang his head in shame. The recruitment process in London consisted of people turning up in a bar in Brick Lane and the fact is any manager who has dealt with Christmas casuals in years gone by do privately state it is a disgrace what has happened and this has been the worst Christmas in terms of getting casual staff due to the process Angard set up even thou unemployment levels are at record levels.

How my fear is Royal Mail at senior level will only look at the bottom line and of course at £6.50 per hour with no payment to any agency well they would have saved a mint.

It just goes to show for all the faults of being in a union , if no one is in one you can really get stitched up and non members are often only looked after on the backs of members.

[POSTMAN]

...
Postman, you deserve a deal of praise for the 'unofficial' Angard forum, but unfortunately the fact that it's in some way removed from the main RMC site has just further served to ghettoise the Angard temps. References to the plight of Christmas staff should be central to the main forum - '2010 and beyond the bounds of human decency', perhaps.

I think you are being a little too negative, there are many sub-sections to this very informative forum, so that posts in relation to the many different branches of RM are relavant eg. post offfice workers; mail processing; delivery staff; health and safety etc. By giving the Angard employees their own section, they are able to better spread the word on their awful lack of payment/ incorrect payment situation and hopefully find ways to get this awful mess resolved. Mass sit-ins and walk-outs do seem to have finally got the attention of both Angard and RM during this last week.

They have their own category which is hard to miss,they have their own web page which Google loves and i knew they would.
They have their own group where i'm like a man possessed trying to get them in to it.
Over 4,500 extra peeps have registered since i put the forum up.
It's impossible to miss whether you're on the site or using search engines.

[Wessex]

Dingo is right , if there was not a Union, everybody would be treated like Angard temps.

[Judgee]

It is shocking how RM/Angard have treated these temps that's for sure. I think the reason that many on here haven't stood up and voiced there support probably has more to do with the fact that as RM workers we are all so used to being treated like crap.

These temps have been treated by far the worst but hearing about RM workers that have been abused and misused by management really just seems like the norm now!

[stokes11eg]

Read small snipprt in our local paper that 6 convicted criminals were employed through this agency---