Bullying and Harrassment

[Lincox]

Dingo, there would be less criticism of the existing bullying and harassment procedure if HR did not insist on downgrading applications to grievances. You can improve the B&H procedure as much as you want, but if Royal Mail continue to create a biased slant on whether a case should proceed or not, we are no further forward.

[Lincox]

Fish, you are absolutely spot on. This is a culture throughout the business and not just in a few places where revisions have gone wrong. This is happening where revisions have not even been started. CWU must insist that this issue is now their priority and that discussions on other matters should be suspended until Royal Mail and CWU agree a process to deal with this that is acceptable by ballot to the membership.

[hans solo]

its quite simple for the cwu actually
when a report of b&h comes in investigate the complaint if upheld and they find company guilty
take it to police and prosecute
IT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE if it happened out in the street charges would be brought
it is no different in workplace

[fishtank]

Dingo, there would be less criticism of the existing bullying and harassment procedure if HR did not insist on downgrading applications to grievances..

It's not just Royal Mail Lincox.
The guidance to reps is to steer members away from a Bullying and Harassment complaint and towards the grievance procedure in all but the most serious cases.
The argument is that it protects members from the conduct code arising from a complaint made in bad faith.
I'm not convinced by that argument,I think it covers up the problem and allows RM off the hook.
If both RM and the union are steering members away from making a B&H complaint there is no point in having a B&H complaint system,the whole thing is a sham.

[Lincox]

Surely the person who makes the final decision should be the applicant, having taken due account of any advice from union. It should not be HR who make the decision, which is what happened in my case. If I feel strongly enough about what has occurred, then why should a person in HR who has no knowledge of the case have the final say.

[Budfrog]

Fishtank your posts make a lot of sense and are spot on.

There is a culture of B&H which eminates from a very senior level and this is the reason that Royal Mail can no longer be trusted to put it's own house in order. For far too long complaints have not been taken seriously and the investigations, if you want to call them that, have been flawed. There have been instances where managers have been lent on to find the bully innocent and the threat of 'in bad faith' has been used far too often to intimidate.

There needs to be an urgent inquiry by an outside body, not in the pocket of RM, into the problem. Outstanding cases need to be investigated thoroughly and the penalties for those found guilty need to send a firm message to everyone that this behaviour will not be tolerated. Moreover a new system of complaint/investigation that is objective needs to be introduced.

[Martin Walsh]

fish There is no difference in anyone desire to root out bullying and harrassment for the workplace wherever it exists. I did not say it was down to a few rouge managers , I mentioned policies. let's be clear here do you think that Moya Greene , Mark Higson, Steve Cameron all tell managers to bully staff , cos having met them all I don't think so.

What I do think is that the pressure these managers put on managers below then end up with some of them bullying the staff. You know how it goes a failing revison the DSM gets it and he puts the pressure on the DOM and he or she sometimes then blames the workforce and normally a few Indivduals in particular. The key here is to resolve the revison to stop any further bullying which is in the decision taken by the PEC next week and is going to the Policy forum.

Now what the union has asked for is a clear instruction signed by Moya Greene and the CWU to everyone in deliveries saying you don't have to work beyond your time and you cannot be disciplined for refusing to work past your time and if you do agree to work beyond then you should be paid overtime. Now this would allow anyone who was being forced to work beyond their time either with or without remuneration a get out of jail card which if the manager still forced them too there was a phone hotline which would stop and investigate the matter. Given the fact this is the biggest issue that members who believe they are being bullied are complaining about.

Now sometimes people on here believe they are the conscience of the union , when in fact no one has a monopoly on wanting to rid Royal Mail of bullying and harrassment. The union is determind to not let down those who believe they are being bullied and ensure that others who might also being bullied are helped as well.

[Budfrog]

Can anyone here tell me the last time a manager was sacked for B&H?

[hans solo]

pish
if we were to cut off it would be a performance issue end of
and so the wheel turns yet again
fact the next time mgmt bully ( and that covers mental ,physical ,lying et all)
im for off sick with stress ,depression and charging barstewards responsible for putting me in that position
fcuk procedures

[hans solo]

Can anyone here tell me the last time a manager was sacked for B&H?

they dont get sacked they go on gardening leave until a suitable position is found for them in another office
postman found guilty instant dismissal

[Lincox]

Dingo, that is naivety to the extreme. Moya Greene, Mark Higson, you name any of the top brass. Of course they are not coming out in the open and telling managers to bully.harass. They know that the decisions they are making to drive the business forward, or in my opinion backwards, will produce a downstream management culture of doing anything to protect their own position. Moya Greene has done nothing, said nothing, knowing full well what is going on below her. Similarly CWU are only now beginning to realise that by doing nothing there has become a groundswell of opinion within the membership against their inactions, and lack of support at ground level for the injustices that are occurring on a daily basis.

[fishtank]

Now what the union has asked for is a clear instruction signed by Moya Greene and the CWU to everyone in deliveries saying you don't have to work beyond your time and you cannot be disciplined for refusing to work past your time and if you do agree to work beyond then you should be paid overtime..

I think that shows a real lack of understanding in the root of the problem,The real issue isn't simply being forced to work over your time but when members say they can't complete their duty inside their contracted hours they face questioning over capability,honesty,they are tested and monitored,compared to others and intimidated to the point where rather than face all that they give in and take it all out or start early and skip their break.

That is the real "forcing members to work over" issue,managers do not normally just walk up to members and say "you will work over" and none of what you quote addresses that culture.
Again the union has misread the situation completely.

[dvbuk55]

What worth would a letter signed by either party be worth? Higson sent a letter once to Dave Ward stating that revisions would not be driven by cost and look where that's led us, everything is cost driven even to the point of refusing to pay overtime. That said how do you bring about a resolution - you can have any number of statements but that fact doesn't change the deed. I believe some managers are also bullied into creating savings knowing full well that no such savings are possible.

[fishtank]

That said how do you bring about a resolution.

The union holds the key but not through pointless joint statements through action.

Members must be reassured that genuine complaints will be treated seriously and that the union will protect them above any other considerations.

Local,Area and Divisional reps must be upskilled in dealing with cases of bullying and where they fail to address those complaints they should be censured.

Branches who fail to properly address bullying in their area should face penalties.

Clusters of bullying should be addressed at national level the minute they become apparent.
Continued failure by RM to address bullying in these areas should be met by a branch wide ballot for industrial action.

Failure by RM senior managers to address the business wide culture of bullying should be met by the withdrawal of support from all joint initiatives and continued failure should be met with a national ballot for industrial action.

At the same time the union should explore legal options for dealing with the 800 documented cases of bullying it already has on file as well as looking to make public that evidence as far and as wide as it can.

[cyclemech1]

Dingo, that is naivety to the extreme. Moya Greene, Mark Higson, you name any of the top brass. Of course they are not coming out in the open and telling managers to bully.harass. They know that the decisions they are making to drive the business forward, or in my opinion backwards, will produce a downstream management culture of doing anything to protect their own position. Moya Greene has done nothing, said nothing, knowing full well what is going on below her. Similarly CWU are only now beginning to realise that by doing nothing there has become a groundswell of opinion within the membership against their inactions, and lack of support at ground level for the injustices that are occurring on a daily basis.

Same thing happened when Moya Greene was in charge of Canadas post. The woman has previous and knows EXACTLY what is going on.