30 mins flexibility

[Gills_Postie]

What are the rules regarding the situation where a manager can ask you to work half an hour over and you can claim it back and vice versa? How much notice do they have to give you? Cheers

[fishtank]

What are the rules regarding the situation where a manager can ask you to work half an hour over and you can claim it back and vice versa? How much notice do they have to give you? Cheers

As it is supposed to be used in "unforeseen situations" the argument for much notice won't really fly,If they had notice it wouldn't be unforeseen but obviously since it's a request and "individual circumstances" will be taken into account obviously the less notice they give you the less chance you have to adjust your "individual circumstances" therefore the less scope you have for accepting the request.

[fishtank]

This is being used and abused all over the county by people who dont know how it actually works

This is being used and abused all over the county by people who know exactly how it actually works.
That's what happens when you make agreements full of vague bollocks.

It is all about managers, reps and employees working together sensibly with a bit of give and take , applying equally to all . This is not about employees not knowing what job they are on, or when they start and finish from one day to the next. Nor is it about anyone refusing reasonable requests. Account should of course always be taken of individual circumstances.

• Variation of hours – Where necessary, for example when traffic volumes are unexpectedly high or resourcing issues arise, individuals may be asked and may themselves request to vary their duty times by up to 30 minutes on a swings and roundabouts basis. Again, individual circumstances will be taken into account and total weekly contractual hours would not change.

[Gills_Postie]

All seems very vague, I'll tell them to stick it and just work my hours.

[woofwoof]

What are the rules .

At our place they use it as an excuse to not pay OT, by saying "well you got finished an hour early the 3rd tuesday in august 2010".

They can say you owe them from the easiest day of the week,but remember weeks DO NOT carry over. Thats important as with the current mail volume, Tuesdays arent easy anymore, at least where I work.

What a load of bollocks

[Lincox]

Jimmy, it is not only weeks that do not carry over, but it is also days. There is no, repeat no, national agreement for banking of hours from one day, one week, one month, one year or any other timeline you wish to take. There may be local agreements in place in some offices, but if they have agreed to this, then more full them.

[Budfrog]

Where are the additional hours worked and taken back as part of the flexibility agreement recorded?

[Lincox]

In the Doms head

[fishtank]

In the Doms head

Well there is plenty room in there.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Line Managers memory for the OPG, but it may be reported in the morning conference call.

[Budfrog]

Good to see there is an accurate audit trail to prevent any abuse of the system by unscrupulous managers then ...

[DirtyHarry]

Your free time is exactly that....YOUR FREE TIME.
You decide what you do with your free time, not Royal Mail.
Demanding that you work 30 minutes of your own free time, isn't 'flexibility', that's slavery.

[DirtyHarry]

Your free time is exactly that....YOUR FREE TIME.
You decide what you do with your free time, not Royal Mail.
Demanding that you work 30 minutes of your own free time, isn't 'flexibility', that's slavery.

To be fair, if I was an employer id be a little miffed if my workforce where going home 2hrs early 1 day, and then refusing to go over by 30mins the next. That being said ,id organise my s**t better so that we had an even workload thru the week, and I wouldnt agree to agreements that say flexibility is voluntary

My employer can tell me to stand on me head, for the 7.5 hrs I'm contracted to work.
What my employer will never ever do, is tell me what to do outside my working hours. That's too much like serfdom for my liking.

[Lincox]

Easily remedied Jimmy. You would have them return to the delivery office and if there is work needs doing there and they are trained for it, then that is what they do. If there is no work to do, then it is up to the employer whether they can leave for home or not.You do not see shop keepers or factories or offices sending their staff home early if there are no customers or work to do. The employer sets the hours of work, it is up to the employer to fill those hours. The one thing this would do, is stop the numpties that come in early for nowt. Royal Mail no full well that they benefit far more from the numpties coming in early, so there is no way they are going to stop people going home after finishing their duty early.

[Budfrog]

Your free time is exactly that....YOUR FREE TIME.
You decide what you do with your free time, not Royal Mail.
Demanding that you work 30 minutes of your own free time, isn't 'flexibility', that's slavery.

To be fair, if I was an employer id be a little miffed if my workforce where going home 2hrs early 1 day, and then refusing to go over by 30mins the next. That being said ,id organise my s**t better so that we had an even workload thru the week, and I wouldnt agree to agreements that say flexibility is voluntary

A couple of points here, a lot of people need a finish time as they have commitments outside of work. Staff are paid by the hour and I'm sorry but it's the nature of the business that you have different levels of workload on different days, no amount of planning will ever totally eradicate this problem. It is an issue that RM management are well aware of and their pricing strategy reflects this to enable them to make a reasonably healthy profit.