Reduction in hours question

[joey0027]

Hi

After working full time as a delivery Postman for the past 12 years, they have finally run me into the ground & I am currently considering applying for a part time position which has become available which would result in me finally having my own round & not picking up after everybody else. However today, a driver from a nearby mail centre mentioned that employees at his office were being offered large payments for reducing their hours. Is this a national agreement and to be entitled to this would I have to be approached rather that applying for a position with reduced hours through choice? Also the advertisment states that those contracted to work less hours than the positions available require will have their hours made up on a temporary basis. Now my question is, does this work the other way i.e. my hours reduced on a temporary basis or would I have to lose them full stop?

Many thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.

Joey.

[POSTMAN]

It's called a buy down,but you wont get it willy nilly,especially if you have vacancies at the office.

If you have an office with vacancies you won't get it,the reason being they are not going to give you a few £k to buy down then recruit new starters.
If your office is fully staffed and the work plan shows that they can lose your hrs then you could get it.

Usually a revision can throw out a buy down but again only if you are fully staffed and have no vacancies.

Voluntary Buy-Down of Hours
Individuals volunteering to reduce their hours in a surplus situation would receive a compensation payment based on the same formula as the calculation of redundancy compensation, pro-rata to hours given up. There will be no ceiling on this payment.
http://www.cwunortheastdivision.org/Ind" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... _2.doc.pdf

[joey0027]

Many thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

The vacancy I have in mind is currently a 40 hour job but it will be reduced to 30 hours removing the ips element as the management claim that there is insufficient work for the number of sorters! The job is currently being covered on a full time basis & I am the day off cover man for this and another round so I'm guesssing that the ips hours they are wishing to lose could be classed a surplus. I would therefore in a round about way be reducing my hours to accomodate the reduction in ips time as I would stay on the round permanently on a 30 hour basis & the guy currently doing the round would take over my cover round on 40 hours. There are however a number of interested part timers who they could give the round to without having to consider a buy down of hours however I am senior to all of the them.

Hope that makes some sense!

I would welcome any further advice.

Thanks again.

Joey.

[POSTMAN]

To be fair it's like i said,if you have vacancies then it's a no no.

If you want the job then you could take it and go down to 30hrs with no payment,if you're the senior man who wants it.
Double check with the rep though about vacancies.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Many thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

The vacancy I have in mind is currently a 40 hour job but it will be reduced to 30 hours removing the ips element as the management claim that there is insufficient work for the number of sorters! The job is currently being covered on a full time basis & I am the day off cover man for this and another round so I'm guesssing that the ips hours they are wishing to lose could be classed a surplus. I would therefore in a round about way be reducing my hours to accomodate the reduction in ips time as I would stay on the round permanently on a 30 hour basis & the guy currently doing the round would take over my cover round on 40 hours. There are however a number of interested part timers who they could give the round to without having to consider a buy down of hours however I am senior to all of the them.

Hope that makes some sense!

I would welcome any further advice.

Thanks again.

Joey.

The way you describe it you won't get a buy down as you effectively volunteered to take the duty on 30 hours. The way it works is not on individual duties but office hours, so the only way you might get a buy down is when the office is fully staffed and they want to get rid of hours, even then its not a certainty as during our last revision there was talk of buy downs but they never materialised, they carried the excess hours and let natural wastage bring it down.

There is no automatic right to a buy down, everything has to fall into place and as far as I know RM have to offer it to the whole office not just individuals.

[joey0027]

Many thanks for your messages, much appreciated.

I spoke with the DOM today who in turn spoke to his boss & as you say there is no chance of a buy down. His recommendation was to stay as I am for the time being as everything is going to change in a few months with the introduction of the shared vans which will more than likely mean that the round will go along with the 4 day week. I'm really unsure what to do now as I'm at breaking point with the place as I'm sure everyone else is. What I can't understand is why for many months the delivery has not had a regular person and now just months away from a revision they decide to advertise a job that may not be around at the end of it.

Anyway, I'll give it some thought as the deadline for applications is Mon.

Once again, thanks for all your help.

Joey.

[POSTMAN]

Your revision 'could' throw up buy downs,but it's a big 'could'.
Tough choice for you tbh,do you take the chance and wait,or do you bite the bullit.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[joey0027]

Many thanks for all your comments, much appreciated.

Joey