Royal Mail's casuals want pay post-haste

[POSTMAN]

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ANGRY temporary postal workers say they’re without pay weeks after being taken on.

In the latest upset for the hundreds of Christmas ‘casuals’ at the town’s Royal Mail sites in Dorcan and Hawksworth Industrial Estate, difficulties in the payroll system have left some out of pocket.

It comes after the Adver reported the outrage of temporary staff who claimed they had been given the runaround by Angard Staffing, the firm Royal Mail use to hire the 18,000 casuals who help to tackle the festive rush.

Among those yet to be paid is James Smith, 28, of Eldene, who said he feared he may not get the money he was owed until after Christmas.

“We have raised this with the managers and they just tell us to keep working,” the father-of-one said. “Some people are doing it for a bit of extra drinking money but there are a lot of people who are in need of the money.

“The way they are treating people is awful – they don’t seem to care. You cannot get through to Angard because it says the number has been ‘disconnected due to the volume of calls’.

“We were supposed to be getting letters we can take to the post office so they can pay us on Friday but loads of people have still not received them.”

“I waited all day on Saturday from 10am to get my money and we didn’t get it until 3.30pm, but there were some people who didn’t get any money. I’ve still got another week left to do. I’ve got to go back, I need the money.” Denice Francis, whose partner Jeff Nicholls, 50, left as a temp after little over a week, said he was still owed money for three days.

She added: “He left because he got another part-time job elsewhere but he is still owed for last Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

“We just wanted a bit of cash for Christmas presents but I’m not sure we’ll ever get the money.

“We tried to phone Angard and have simply not been able to get through – sometimes we were on hold for about 30 minutes.”

Royal Mail spokesman Nick Martens said: “Difficulties with the payroll system have meant that some temporary workers have not been paid on time or the correct amount.

“We apologise for this as our temporary Christmas staff are very important to us.

“The vast majority of our Christmas temporary recruits are being paid as usual into their bank accounts today. Where this is not possible, we are making huge efforts to put in place an additional payment channel.

“This involves staff receiving a bar-coded letter which can then be redeemed for the relevant amount of cash at any Post Office branch.

“We apologise again for any inconvenience this may cause. We are determined to ensure that staff receive their correct pay.”

[madcyril71]

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news ... ost_haste/

ANGRY temporary postal workers say they’re without pay weeks after being taken on.

In the latest upset for the hundreds of Christmas ‘casuals’ at the town’s Royal Mail sites in Dorcan and Hawksworth Industrial Estate, difficulties in the payroll system have left some out of pocket.

It comes after the Adver reported the outrage of temporary staff who claimed they had been given the runaround by Angard Staffing, the firm Royal Mail use to hire the 18,000 casuals who help to tackle the festive rush.

Among those yet to be paid is James Smith, 28, of Eldene, who said he feared he may not get the money he was owed until after Christmas.

“We have raised this with the managers and they just tell us to keep working,” the father-of-one said. “Some people are doing it for a bit of extra drinking money but there are a lot of people who are in need of the money.

“The way they are treating people is awful – they don’t seem to care. You cannot get through to Angard because it says the number has been ‘disconnected due to the volume of calls’.

“We were supposed to be getting letters we can take to the post office so they can pay us on Friday but loads of people have still not received them.”

“I waited all day on Saturday from 10am to get my money and we didn’t get it until 3.30pm, but there were some people who didn’t get any money. I’ve still got another week left to do. I’ve got to go back, I need the money.” Denice Francis, whose partner Jeff Nicholls, 50, left as a temp after little over a week, said he was still owed money for three days.

She added: “He left because he got another part-time job elsewhere but he is still owed for last Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

“We just wanted a bit of cash for Christmas presents but I’m not sure we’ll ever get the money.

“We tried to phone Angard and have simply not been able to get through – sometimes we were on hold for about 30 minutes.”

Royal Mail spokesman Nick Martens said: “Difficulties with the payroll system have meant that some temporary workers have not been paid on time or the correct amount.

“We apologise for this as our temporary Christmas staff are very important to us.

“The vast majority of our Christmas temporary recruits are being paid as usual into their bank accounts today. Where this is not possible, we are making huge efforts to put in place an additional payment channel.

“This involves staff receiving a bar-coded letter which can then be redeemed for the relevant amount of cash at any Post Office branch.

“We apologise again for any inconvenience this may cause. We are determined to ensure that staff receive their correct pay.”

"just keep working "