Sacked for 'Wilful' delay..

[beau1]

Don't really want to mention any names or locations here as I don't think my frustration here is with an individual or person, its with the whole Royal Mail system and protocol.

I was sacked today after a week and a half on the job, for the 'wilful delay of the Queen's Mail', something which I knew could well happen (despite never actually being told this) however it seems there is completely no lee-way on the matter.

Take my situation for example, on Tuesday I started a new round which took me 4 hours and ended it at roughly 5pm just as light started fading.

Move on to Wednesday, I normally start at 1PM however, Royal Mail cocks up so I'm not ready to leave until 2 and to my surprise I find that I've got twice the amount of the day before. I do most of the round, in about 4 hours again and by this time its 6:15 and getting too dark to see and the remaining street (one long street) is one that I have never done before. I worked out that with amount of mail I have, it would take about an hour in the light but taking into account the light it would have probably taken me and hour and a half which would have meant people would have received mail at around 7:45pm.

So what do I do? Considering I've never been given a contact number for this situation, I take the intiative and decide that I will do the mail, early on the next morning before I go in at 1PM. Unfortunatly, my manager rings me up at 10 asking how I get on, being the honest soul I am I tell him 'I did 4 hours yesterday but I had mail left over so I'm going to do that now', thinking about it now I should have just lied and said it took me 6 and a half hours and gone and done it anyway.

To cut a long story short, he asks me to take the mail back to the delivery centre and sacks me on the spot which led to me having a 20 minute 'argument' about how it was them who actually 'f****d up' and not me.

Just a couple of reasons why I didn't carry on after 6:30pm

1. It was pitch dark on a road I did not know, I hadn't been supplied with a torch (apparently they don't...) and therefore couldn't read either door number until I went up the path (making the job even longer... or less accurate) nor the letters I was holding.

2. Under the grounds of health and safety, I didn't want to be blundering around people's gardens in area I did not know, added to that some of these houses were suitable awkward as they were rear entry only and meant I'd have to open gates and go through their back gardens, all of this in a pretty rough area.

3. I couldn't actually do the job anymore as it was so dark. As I said before, I hadn't been given a contact number for this situation and the likely scenerio is that even if I had, I doubt I'd been able to get hold of a manager on delivery at 6:30pm.

4. For me personally, I probably wouldn't answer my door in the dark after 7pm until I knew it was someone coming around my house. You do not expect the postman to be there with a parcel for you to sign or trying to stuff things through your letterbox because they can not see. I've NEVER known for a postman to deliver after 5PM let alone 7.

All of these points I told my manager, however before I even explained the situation he had said 'obviously this is the end of your contract with us'.

I get the protocol and apparently they are doing a lot of changes in my area, but this is complete bullshit if you ask me. It wasn't MY fault that they f****d up and my round had too much for me to be able to complete and it wasn't 'wilful' delay because I wasn't actually able to do the job anymore...rant over.

I've got to be honest though, I'm kind of glad in a way, I wouldn't want to be delivering in the dark with all sorts of people saying 'why is the mail being delivered at 7:30pm, we normally have it before 12?'

Just to point out, I had no fixed hours but was told that we would be out there '3-4 hours each day', not 6 or 7 and going into conditions when I could not see due to diminishing light.

P.S The other topic on the 'Angard Forum' can be deleted now as I found the best place to put this!

[iHateD2Ds]

Well from what Iv read it really depends on how much you really want to work for your mis- managed work place.The manager is really at fault by not explaining what you need to do with mail you are unable to deliver. You need to write to his senior area manager explaining your position and seek redress.

[Darren Bent]

Strange time to start delivery at 1pm and you are just unlucky not to have a regular round for few months to help you to find your feet.

I would move on and look for something else. It is not a great job.

[Budfrog]

You seem like a genuine hard working person, one whom most forward thinking organisations would wish to retain. I cannot see how your actions constitute wilful delay and although taking the work home, even if it was with the intention of finishing the following morning, was not correct procedure it should be argued that as a new starter leeway should be given. Clearly there are issues with the times and the volumes and a strong indication that your manager(s) did not perform their duties to a particularly high standard either.

Even if you do not wish to return to Royal Mail I would send an eMail to the Office DOM and make sure that you copy in his DSM to explain the situation which appears to constitute a serious breakdown in your induction and how you were managed. . Sadly a a lot of managers cannot treat permanent staff with dignity and respect and when it comes to our casual colleagues they take even more liberties. Even though you are not a CWU member many decent reps will also be able to give you some advise ... some on here even.

Good luck.

[5plusbonusball]

Sadly a lot of managers cannot treat permanent staff with dignity and respect and when it comes to our casual colleagues they take even more liberties.

Thats so true nowadays, they seem to have been brainwashed to flog us all to death . Good luck mate. You would be better off in another company now.

[TeeferTiger]

Admittedly you should have either delivered the mail, or contacted a manager to tell them you couldn't complete. However, I doubt this was explained to you, or that you were given a number to phone anyway. If you wanted to keep the job, you should speak to your union rep. I'd speak to the rep anyway about it because you starting at 1pm and then being given a load of mail to deliver is just not on for starters. Seems like a case for unfair dismissal IMO in view of the poor training received.

[dvbuk55]

Well there is supposed to be a cut off of 3pm for twon and 4pm for rural so how do they ratify that with someone starting at 1 pm?

[krussel]

What a terrible way to run a company and how far standards have fallen.

Firstly ITS NOT YOUR FAULT as you were put in a completely impossible situation of trying to continue working in failing light and without any training or being told the correct procedure. Why you were starting so late at 1pm is a bit of a mystery to me.

I am assuming you took the mail home in your car etc and resumed the next day. Unfortunately they have you by the short cur lies here as it against all the rules and could have been classed as theft. However you should have been warned about this, given a contact number and told what to do BEFORE they sent you out.

Tricky one. They easy have enough to sack you and indeed have done so. Your only chance is to join the CWU ASAP and ask for a meeting with your local area rep. From there you can find out if you have a case for reinstatement.

I wish you the very best.

[POSTMAN]

Contact Moya at justsayit@royalmail.com spill the beans and show the management crud up.

[osgoody1970]

must be a case for a tribunal, royal mail would get pelters and deserverdly so!!!!!

[easter bunny]

A terrible situation. However, redress outside of the RM is not applicable due to time served.

Cameron is also trying to alter unfair dismissal at an ET to 2 years service....

[TrueBlueTerrier]

A terrible situation. However, redress outside of the RM is not applicable due to time served.

Cameron is also trying to alter unfair dismissal at an ET to 2 years service....

and a £500 refundable fee to deter the vexatious claims he says. Of course he ignores that many workers who have been wronged won't be able to afford the £500.

:dcfo :dcfo

[easter bunny]

Wonder if the statutory limit will also be decreased under the current Governement.

You would expect the Tories to be the enemy of the working class as always, but the Liberals.....

Remember the Tories screaming on how Millions of jobs would be lost when the Minimum Wage was introduced....

[Stormproof]

1pm start to do a 4 hour walk. Last letter at the earliest 5pm. Looks like the DOM has failed the USO on that duty and other duties, you should be taking it further and drop him right in it. You as a new starter should'nt be put in this situation. Did you ever get any training? As you say its a H & S issue, what if you got mugged for the mail in a dark street, what if you had fallen and nobody would've seen you until daylight. As I said drop the DOM in it, you've nothing to lose!

[The Quiet Man]

Can you not say that you returned to the office with the mail but there was no-one in......rather than leaving the mail outside the DO you had to make a decision and decided to safeguard the mail by taking it home and delivering it the next day!