Tuesday rant

[eastie]

Our delivery office has about 40 postie of which only about 6 people actually start at their official start time of which I am one of them.
The rest of them come in 30 to 60 minutes early and don't have a meal relief and get back to the office early.

Last week when we had all these Sun newspapers me and my P/L partner cut off leaving 2 rows as we refused to go over our time.
The DOM who is picking on the people who do the job properly said to us "Why aren't you prepping all your D2D'S on Mondays and Tuesdays utilising your time so you can complete your rounds on Wednesday's and Thursdays without cutting off"
We replied "that as we start at our OFFICIAL start time and not an hour early, plus we take a meal relief the runners get an additional 60 to 80 mins to prep them."
This week we finished early today ( Tuesday) and the DOM said we should stay behind and prep D2D's till our official finish time. That's OK by me but the runners had gone home an hour ago and nothing said.
According to the DOM its OK to come in early and go home early but if you start at your official start time and have a break you have to work to your time. Surely the runners should finish at the end of their duty regardless of if they have come in early as it isn't job and finish anymore

[dvbuk55]

Surely the runners should finish at the end of their duty regardless of if they have come in early as it isn't job and finish anymore

It is for them obviously

[holly123]

SAME ALL OVER SHOULD'NT SAY IT BUT IT WOULD BE NICE FOR A RUNNER TO HURT HIMSELF (NOT TO BAD THO ) CARRYING A BIG BAG AND THEN SEE IF THEY COVER IT IF HE TRIED TO CLAIM OFF THEM , JUST NEED ONE ACCIDENT ON DUTY FOR A RUNNER TO SEE WHAT GETS DONE ,

[bustedflush]

Our delivery office has about 40 postie of which only about 6 people actually start at their official start time of which I am one of them.
The rest of them come in 30 to 60 minutes early and don't have a meal relief and get back to the office early.

Last week when we had all these Sun newspapers me and my P/L partner cut off leaving 2 rows as we refused to go over our time.
The DOM who is picking on the people who do the job properly said to us "Why aren't you prepping all your D2D'S on Mondays and Tuesdays utilising your time so you can complete your rounds on Wednesday's and Thursdays without cutting off"
We replied "that as we start at our OFFICIAL start time and not an hour early, plus we take a meal relief the runners get an additional 60 to 80 mins to prep them."
This week we finished early today ( Tuesday) and the DOM said we should stay behind and prep D2D's till our official finish time. That's OK by me but the runners had gone home an hour ago and nothing said.
According to the DOM its OK to come in early and go home early but if you start at your official start time and have a break you have to work to your time. Surely the runners should finish at the end of their duty regardless of if they have come in early as it isn't job and finish anymore

Yes, that happens in our office. A tacit DOM approval of early starters/runners. It's pretty similar here, about 7 or 8 that work to the agreement and the rest are motivated by finishing early. IF you come in early and never cut-off then you are pretty much covered under the 'swings and roundabouts' rule for leaving early. The minority of 7 or 8, due to them at one time or another having to either bring mail back or complete on o/t are usually made to work their time.
There's two ways of seeing this - the early starters (some went home at 11:45 today) aren't actually getting that much of a free ride as they forgo their 1/2 hour total meal relief, come in 1/2 - 3/4 hour early so have really only made about a half-hour gain overall. The customers have their post earlier, there is no danger of DOM paying them o/t and those particular posties are happy to sod-off early. DOM is looking the other way.
On the other hand, they are skewing the way the DOM sees the walks and eschew using trolleys etc. Those working to time are often seen as uncooperative when they leave mail behind or call in asking for o/t to complete or even bring it back, therefore pay for it on light days like in your example by being made to go out again. The early starters (if asked to work their time when getting back early) would simply say, "OK, no problem, I'm just going to take my meal relief now see me in 20-30 mins" which of course means there wouldn't be time for them to actually do anything before their time is nearly up. So they never get asked.
To summarize you have a two-tier workforce, the 'earlies' and the 'contracts'. In most offices the 'earlies' make up the majority, despite nearly all being CWU members. Therefore the 'early' is clearly what human nature tends toward. Of course this suits RM as it's cost-effective and guarantees little or no o/t on the rounds they do plus the DOM never needs to worry about going out on delivery in the afternoon.
I can see both sides but practicality will surely win through in the end, and the pouch/trolley rules revised at some stage plus contracted hours edging earlier in the day, especially for the temp ones as even I can see when you're a temp, starting at 8:04 on Wed/Thu/Fri is ridiculous when your partner who is F/T will be ready to go at 9-ish which means you hold them up and waste time. So naturally you come in early, both get bagged up together and finish/complete at an earlier time which hopefully pays you back the half-hour you came in early.

[Jpro747]

Managers won't stop the runners/early starters from going home early because essentially they are saving the company a tonne of money and delivering all the mail. Imagine if RM now said you cant go home early and you must start on time, offices up and down the country would fail the USO, overtime would hit the roof, etc.

[Chelseablue]

I thought all offices started at there time now .the offices I know of have all been warned that know one starts before there time . Wtf this is not happening nationally wheres our union regarding this?

[ebbzie]

Managers won't stop the runners/early starters from going home early because essentially they are saving the company a tonne of money and delivering all the mail. Imagine if RM now said you cant go home early and you must start on time, offices up and down the country would fail the USO, overtime would hit the roof, etc.

This hits the nail on the head

[pinstripe]

The DOM who is picking on the people who do the job properly said to us "Why aren't you prepping all your D2D'S on Mondays and Tuesdays utilising your time so you can complete your rounds on Wednesday's and Thursdays without cutting off"

Because there is time built into the duties for prepping d2ds Monday to Saturday.

[clashcityrocker]

I thought all offices started at there time now .the offices I know of have all been warned that know one starts before there time . Wtf this is not happening nationally wheres our union regarding this?

A more apt question would be - Where are our union members regarding this?

[Patti-Ann]

Can someone tell me what a 'runner' is, I've not heard the term? Is it someone that actually runs/jogs round the delivery?

I might have years ago, but now in my 50's it takes all my time to keep to a brisk walk

[dvbuk55]

I thought all offices started at there time now .the offices I know of have all been warned that know one starts before there time . Wtf this is not happening nationally wheres our union regarding this?

A more apt question would be - Where are our union members regarding this?

They may not be members of the union which is more prevalent now - our office has about 40% non-members. They don't join because there is so little in house communication from either the rep or branch.

[bustedflush]

Can someone tell me what a 'runner' is, I've not heard the term? Is it someone that actually runs/jogs round the delivery?

I might have years ago, but now in my 50's it takes all my time to keep to a brisk walk

Runner doesn't necessarily mean literally running, but somebody who walks/jogs at an unnatural speed in order to make time and go early, usually not using trolley and cutting corners. They hate being paired with non-runners.

[pinstripe]

Can someone tell me what a 'runner' is, I've not heard the term? Is it someone that actually runs/jogs round the delivery?

I might have years ago, but now in my 50's it takes all my time to keep to a brisk walk

A 'runner' is someone who starts an hour early and rushes his/her job (and those around them) in an attempt to finish 5 minutes early.

[lollollol]

This needs taking up under the Grievance procedure surely... or possibly under the B&H procedure?

Taken from the July 2013 B&H policy:

Bullying

Bullying is intimidation on a regular and persistent basis or as a one off which serves to undermine the confidence, integrity, competence and effectiveness, of the person on the receiving end. A bully misuses his or her power, position or knowledge to criticise, humiliate and demoralise a colleague.

Victimisation

Victimisation is the unfair and selective punishment of, or discrimination against, an individual.

The OP's integrity, competence and effectiveness is without a doubt being questioned...

[Chelseablue]

We've a lot of ppl don't even know bout joining a union ,I've got a few ppl joined but our rep dosent seem interested. Is it his job to go round new starts etc ?