Summer Resourcing LTB and Questions?

[Mezza]

I'm posting this on behalf of a colleague in my D/O, but a copy has been sent to CWU HQ. Be interested to hear any ones opinion/answers to the following also:
Good afternoon Mark.


I've just been reading the LTB which has been posted on the RM chat forum, and I have some questions which are relevant to my office and probably others. Can you please answer the following if possible.


In the LTB it states : 1 - All summer resourcing plans will not be based on any predetermined lapsing/absorption plans or budget targets.
2 - To provide people with advanced notice of what work they will be expected to do on a daily and weekly basis over the whole summer period and to provide additional annual leave opportunities over the summer period, including opportunities to ‘burn off’ any outstanding or carried over leave.


My 1st question is : How can these plans not be predetermined but also provide people with advanced notice of work they will be expected to do ?




Question 2 : Can the DOM "ring fence" duties for summer resourcing or do these duties have to be selected for lapsing due to extra A/L being issued or sickness ?
We have been told by our CWU rep that if we have a post revision re-sign that the DOM will take out 4 duties nearest to the office for summer resourcing.


Question 3 : If he does ring fence these duties when he shouldn't be, what should our course of action be ?


Question 4 : Should all overtime be removed before lapsing takes place as this would give a better understanding of hours that can be utilised ?
Currently we have a couple of people coming in 1 hour early on Mondays and Tuesdays and up to 10 people on Wednesdays - Saturdays every week earning overtime. Not only that, but we currently have no part time duties to prep. The P/T staff are being paid 3 hours O/T daily. This is on top of people working their days off. My reasoning is that, why pay overtime when you need to save hours lapsing.


Question 5 : Is it a health and safety issue if people are working before their actual start time, fully sanctioned by management and that people are not taking their meal reliefs, again fully sanctioned by management.
The reason I ask this, is because this encourages people to rush around, thereby finishing early and being able to lapse. Again not a true reflection on hours that can be utilised.


Question 6 : Should managers be handling our work ?
A quick run down on what the managers in our office do.


1- Prep walks
2- Do firm checks
3- Do dead letters
4- Go out on delivery
5- Pick up trays
6- Push yorks around and break them down
7- Do the Portering
8- Spend a couple of hours a day walking around talking


With the exception of 8, if these tasks were properly aligned we would have no time to lapse.


Question 7 : Should the DOM be adhering to the agenda for growth agreement, which clearly states "FULLY UTILISE ALL PAID HOURS"
and if he is not what can be done about it ?


PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING :


Stage 1 of our revision was implemented in September 2013.
Stage 2 of our revision was implemented in October 2013.
The final stage was implemented in January 2014.
We have never had a 4 week or 8 week assessment and the PIR has not been signed off.

[worktotime]

I'm posting this on behalf of a colleague in my D/O, but a copy has been sent to CWU HQ. Be interested to hear any ones opinion/answers to the following also:
Good afternoon Mark.


I've just been reading the LTB which has been posted on the RM chat forum, and I have some questions which are relevant to my office and probably others. Can you please answer the following if possible.


In the LTB it states : 1 - All summer resourcing plans will not be based on any predetermined lapsing/absorption plans or budget targets.
2 - To provide people with advanced notice of what work they will be expected to do on a daily and weekly basis over the whole summer period and to provide additional annual leave opportunities over the summer period, including opportunities to ‘burn off’ any outstanding or carried over leave.


My 1st question is : How can these plans not be predetermined but also provide people with advanced notice of work they will be expected to do ?




Question 2 : Can the DOM "ring fence" duties for summer resourcing or do these duties have to be selected for lapsing due to extra A/L being issued or sickness ?
We have been told by our CWU rep that if we have a post revision re-sign that the DOM will take out 4 duties nearest to the office for summer resourcing.


Question 3 : If he does ring fence these duties when he shouldn't be, what should our course of action be ?


Question 4 : Should all overtime be removed before lapsing takes place as this would give a better understanding of hours that can be utilised ?
Currently we have a couple of people coming in 1 hour early on Mondays and Tuesdays and up to 10 people on Wednesdays - Saturdays every week earning overtime. Not only that, but we currently have no part time duties to prep. The P/T staff are being paid 3 hours O/T daily. This is on top of people working their days off. My reasoning is that, why pay overtime when you need to save hours lapsing.


Question 5 : Is it a health and safety issue if people are working before their actual start time, fully sanctioned by management and that people are not taking their meal reliefs, again fully sanctioned by management.
The reason I ask this, is because this encourages people to rush around, thereby finishing early and being able to lapse. Again not a true reflection on hours that can be utilised.


Question 6 : Should managers be handling our work ?
A quick run down on what the managers in our office do.


1- Prep walks
2- Do firm checks
3- Do dead letters
4- Go out on delivery
5- Pick up trays
6- Push yorks around and break them down
7- Do the Portering
8- Spend a couple of hours a day walking around talking


With the exception of 8, if these tasks were properly aligned we would have no time to lapse.


Question 7 : Should the DOM be adhering to the agenda for growth agreement, which clearly states "FULLY UTILISE ALL PAID HOURS"
and if he is not what can be done about it ?


PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING :


Stage 1 of our revision was implemented in September 2013.
Stage 2 of our revision was implemented in October 2013.
The final stage was implemented in January 2014.
We have never had a 4 week or 8 week assessment and the PIR has not been signed off.

to be honest do you think you get any answers , cause I don't think any union rep will no what the shite is about. bob give us a clue ? comes to mind.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

My 1st question is : How can these plans not be predetermined but also provide people with advanced notice of work they will be expected to do ?

Basically "summer staffing" is to be used for allowing extra annual leave for the benefit of the office not for covering other absence like sickness, they should not be predetermined to cut down on costs, summer staffing should be opening up extra slots for leave in the summer and not being used to cover sickness, push for the extra slots to be opened up for leave as it should be

Question 2 : Can the DOM "ring fence" duties for summer resourcing or do these duties have to be selected for lapsing due to extra A/L being issued or sickness ?
We have been told by our CWU rep that if we have a post revision re-sign that the DOM will take out 4 duties nearest to the office for summer resourcing.

What the DOM is trying to do here is actually sensible and reasonable to a degree, it is best to have the duties next to the office as the ones that will get split up as it will save on travelling time and and tying that with the resign is fair as then people who sign for these duties will be doing so on the full knowledge that they will be expected to move.

Though he should not be holding a post revision resign as a carrot for this, the post revision resign should happen regardless

Question 3 : If he does ring fence these duties when he shouldn't be, what should our course of action be ?

you can lodge a stage 1 disagreement to it, going to need to find some decent reasons for not doing it

Question 4 : Should all overtime be removed before lapsing takes place as this would give a better understanding of hours that can be utilised ?
Currently we have a couple of people coming in 1 hour early on Mondays and Tuesdays and up to 10 people on Wednesdays - Saturdays every week earning overtime. Not only that, but we currently have no part time duties to prep. The P/T staff are being paid 3 hours O/T daily. This is on top of people working their days off. My reasoning is that, why pay overtime when you need to save hours lapsing.

things should be the other way round in fact, how can the office lapse if there is a requirement for so much overtime? lapsing should only be done if there is time in existing duty hours, if after doing lapsing and ot is still being claimed then lapsing should be getting stopped

Question 5 : Is it a health and safety issue if people are working before their actual start time, fully sanctioned by management and that people are not taking their meal reliefs, again fully sanctioned by management.
The reason I ask this, is because this encourages people to rush around, thereby finishing early and being able to lapse. Again not a true reflection on hours that can be utilised.

the health and safety issue is not the fact that people are coming in early, the issue is the rushing and not taking breaks, managers should be stopping this and encouraging people to take the proper breaks

Question 6 : Should managers be handling our work ?

None whatsoever its taking money directly out of postie's pockets by reducing overtime in the office, lodge a stage 1 disagreement about it

Question 7 : Should the DOM be adhering to the agenda for growth agreement, which clearly states "FULLY UTILISE ALL PAID HOURS"
and if he is not what can be done about it ?

He should but thats his managers responsibility to take him to task for it if its not happening, not your job to police if he is letting people away early

[Spy]

ZX. Question 2 - Ring fencing duties. This cannot be done as it opens a whole can of worms. 2 weeks ago my DOM sent an HCT postie 1 mile away in a van for lapsing. And if the DOM doesn't like the senior posties (something that is obvious in my office) then he'll take the HCT duties away as these will go first. Plus the maximum time it takes to travel to the furthest delivery point is 5 minutes. Sounds like bullyboy tactics to me regarding the resign.

Question 3 - The reason is the difference between the nearest and furthest deliveries is 5 minutes maximum. Town deliveries not rural. So there is no reason to ring fence the duties nearest to the office.

Question 5 - If people are coming in early and working are they insured ? I think the union are looking into this to stop RMG from breaking the law. Managers will never stop this until somebody is taken to task. A couple of weeks ago a postie asked my DOM if he should add 40 minutes to his sign out time. The DOM replied "ADD 40 MINUTES IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD A BREAK"

Question 6 - Mezza, let me know how your colleague gets on if he decides to go down this route.

Question 7 - If the office is completely clear and everybody finishes at the same time I would suggest that this is not a problem. However, I doubt this the case as the question would not have been asked.

Mezza. Your managers do loads of work. Fancy sending some of them up north so they can take away some of our jobs.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

ZX. Question 2 - Ring fencing duties. This cannot be done as it opens a whole can of worms. 2 weeks ago my DOM sent an HCT postie 1 mile away in a van for lapsing. And if the DOM doesn't like the senior posties (something that is obvious in my office) then he'll take the HCT duties away as these will go first. Plus the maximum time it takes to travel to the furthest delivery point is 5 minutes. Sounds like bullyboy tactics to me regarding the resign.

It can be done and is being done up and down the country it makes far more sense to lapse the duty or duties right next to the office, those 5 minutes extra traveling time do soon add up, if you have 4 duties being split between 40 guys that adds up to over 3 hours worth of savings thus in fact only 3 duties would need to be lapsed, and its not a can of worms if the resign is done properly and the people signing for these duties are doing so in full knowledge what they are taking on

Question 3 - The reason is the difference between the nearest and furthest deliveries is 5 minutes maximum. Town deliveries not rural. So there is no reason to ring fence the duties nearest to the office.

again all those 5 minutes soon add up

Question 5 - If people are coming in early and working are they insured ? I think the union are looking into this to stop RMG from breaking the law. Managers will never stop this until somebody is taken to task. A couple of weeks ago a postie asked my DOM if he should add 40 minutes to his sign out time. The DOM replied "ADD 40 MINUTES IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD A BREAK"

Of course they are insured, everyone is insured whilst in the premises regardless of if starting early or not, RM are not breaking the law by letting people start early

[Cut Off King]

The CWU seem to be powerless to stop local managers from acting however they please.

[Glenno]

The CWU seem to be powerless to stop local managers from acting however they please.

Seem to be hand in hand these days m8y, but hey ho another good agreement

[scooby]

we was told today we have to watch a video on this next week what fun

[TrueBlueTerrier]

we was told today we have to watch a video on this next week what fun

WE had it today - its very repetitive and even our manager said it was very "Janet and john" in its style.

[music4essex]

Yes we had it today , Very Condescending

Essex mum

[ninja]

The video concerns the issue of walk call rates and these would have been captured in phase 2 of the planning process for each walk including an additional percentage for D2D.
This information should have been provided as part of the PIR process and just looking to see if anybody is aware of what the call rate is for there walk. In simple terms a high call rate the longer you need on delivery and from a resourcing point of view if your walk is above the planned call rate then outdoor absorption becomes a non starter. So would suggest that the reps ask for this info from the DOM/Planners or let me know and I will explain the process to get this info.

The statement below was from the model week statement and also mentions the increase of delivery span by mail volume.

The model week should be set on a realistic reference period that reflects the
expectations of the unit’s employees in a way that is efficient but at the same time
is reliable. It is sometimes very difficult to recover unproductive time stranded
within duty time and at the same time it can be difficult to flex up where the units
expectations are not geared up to overtime. By setting a relatively low model week
it will normally mean that when using the Traffic Forecasting Tool you will have to
flex up indoor resourcing as traffic volumes will exceed the model on the majority
of weeks during the year. In other words outdoor time is far less affected by
fluctuations in traffic volume as a 10% increase in mail would normally equate to
an 8% increase on indoor and 1.8% increase on outdoor workload.
Method

[Spy]

The video concerns the issue of walk call rates and these would have been captured in phase 2 of the planning process for each walk including an additional percentage for D2D.
This information should have been provided as part of the PIR process and just looking to see if anybody is aware of what the call rate is for there walk. In simple terms a high call rate the longer you need on delivery and from a resourcing point of view if your walk is above the planned call rate then outdoor absorption becomes a non starter. So would suggest that the reps ask for this info from the DOM/Planners or let me know and I will explain the process to get this info.

The statement below was from the model week statement and also mentions the increase of delivery span by mail volume.

The model week should be set on a realistic reference period that reflects the
expectations of the unit’s employees in a way that is efficient but at the same time
is reliable. It is sometimes very difficult to recover unproductive time stranded
within duty time and at the same time it can be difficult to flex up where the units
expectations are not geared up to overtime. By setting a relatively low model week
it will normally mean that when using the Traffic Forecasting Tool you will have to
flex up indoor resourcing as traffic volumes will exceed the model on the majority
of weeks during the year. In other words outdoor time is far less affected by
fluctuations in traffic volume as a 10% increase in mail would normally equate to
an 8% increase on indoor and 1.8% increase on outdoor workload.
Method

I would suggest that that call rates etc are no longer applicable. The most recent agreement, THE AGENDA FOR GROWTH, quite clearly stipulates that resource to workload has to be managed by FULLY UTILISING ALL PAID HOURS.

Surely this means that if somebody finishes their duty 3 hours before you, regardless of how this happens, they must assist the people that haven't finished.

I was told by my DOM after yet another argument regarding workload, that nothing is fair in Royal Mail. My response ? THE ONLY THING THAT IS FAIR THAT WE ARE ALL PAID TO WORK A 39 HOUR WEEK, REGARDLESS. At this point my manager walked away.

Every single measurement tool that RMG is pointless. Creating jobs for the worthless.

The model week ? Please tell me, if our work is based, on this how our managers can let 1 or more of my colleagues finish 4 hours + before me.

The model week is 39 hours for every blue collar worker.
The model week is being paid overtime for actually working overtime.

Too many blue collar workers listening to the bulls*** that comes out of managers mouths. Probably coz they're making loads of time.

Call rates again ? If you're referring to attendance calls, some in our office made up numbers when asked to do a count, some in our office didn't bother, so the management made up numbers, some in our office counted the attendance calls for multi drop deliveries. Ie; several attendance calls delivered to the same place.

Once again, none of the above matter if managers just made people work their time. Unfortunately this won't happen, because, IMO, managers either cannot or are too afraid to manage.

[Mezza]

I know what you mean Spy.
On Monday our DOM was stressing over the fact that he didn't have cover for a delivery - a bit of a nasty big one as well. He even mentioned that he would have to go out and do it.

When i got back from my delivery there was a strange postie walking through the car park looking lost.
Turns out he was sent over from another office to cover the duty, so the DOM didn't have to do it.

Sounds ok doesn't it, after all our office has regularly sent spares to assist other offices.

But, as there were already posties in our office that had finished and gone home how can it be right?

The issue doesn't bother me personally as i'm indoor staff and having been out on delivery for 2 hours then have to work in the RLE till my time is done. I have no issue with anyone finishing and going home early - good luck to them.

The issue as pointed out by Spy, is the poor management of hours that allows this to happen in the first place. It doesn't matter what tool/s are used to measure anything, as long as management run things how they want for a quiet life.

[ninja]

Call rates again ? If you're referring to attendance calls, some in our office made up numbers when asked to do a count, some in our office didn't bother, so the management made up numbers, some in our office counted the attendance calls for multi drop deliveries. Ie; several attendance calls delivered to the same place.

Once again, none of the above matter if managers just made people work their time. Unfortunately this won't happen, because, IMO, managers either cannot or are too afraid to manage.

The call rate mentioned above is the percentage used by the planners to establish how many delivery points will be serviced by the postie. For example a call rate of 50 on a delivery with 500 delivery points would mean that the tools assume that you will only deliver 250 of them.

Attendance Call would be the total amount of time planned for stopping at addresses to deal with specials,recordeds,packets,etc... and the unagreed measurement is that 1min equals one attendance or 30mins equals 30 stops. Each walk should have this info displayed as standard but most managers are afraid of this info because most walks would require packets being taken of them each day.
It may be a surprise that many of the areas mentioned as being within the top 100 have this info displayed on each walk so perhaps the failure of the managers to provide the additional resource against the workload is the problem.

I agree the tools are not that user friendly and not been considered for use by the front line reps. We also have the problem that it is very easy to play with the data to produce the result you want, hence the IWT is moving to an automated process because RM don't believe the results that the DOM's/DSM have been claiming.

Going forward I believe the RM plan has always been to introduce the PDA's as a tracker and guess this will address a lot of the issues concerning people making time,etc...and will force the local managers to be accountable for making sure the individual is working there contracted hours, unless the new PDA's have a suspend function?

[Mezza]

I agree the tools are not that user friendly and not been considered for use by the front line reps. We also have the problem that it is very easy to play with the data to produce the result you want, hence the IWT is moving to an automated process because RM don't believe the results that the DOM's/DSM have been claiming.

Going forward I believe the RM plan has always been to introduce the PDA's as a tracker and guess this will address a lot of the issues concerning people making time,etc...and will force the local managers to be accountable for making sure the individual is working there contracted hours, unless the new PDA's have a suspend function?

Surely if the data the PDA's provide is only seen and used by the DOMS then we're no better off as they will again play with the data to show what they want?