Work time listening and learning and contract law!Bah humbug

[Cyclopz]

Greetings one and all.

I work in a mail centre, a very busy mail centre handling large amounts of import mail.
This is all good and Christmas is on the way which means volumes are piling up.
As a result of this increased traffic management have decided to cancel our 30 minutes a week of work time learning.

Now in our 318's which is our contract of employment it specifically states that we are entitled to 30 minutes a week work time listening and learning.
Firstly I am wondering if there is a case of Royal mail breaking their contractual obligations to us as postpersons in denying us this time.
Is there a clause somewhere within Royal mail literature that specifically states that under periods of intense pressure this 30 minutes a week can be cancelled?
Could ultimately Royal mail be taken to an employment tribunal and made to pay us back this time?

Secondly management have decided to cancel our Christmas party, a party we very successfully had last year.
My argument to management will be that because for four weeks you have denied us this 30 minutes a week then you effectively owe us two hours.
This two hours could be used to have our Christmas party on December 24th at around twelve noon and we could all go home after.

What do people think of this logical approach.
What will Royal mail management come back with as a counter argument?

Any comments greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[ted_e_bear]

Sounds like they'll owe you 2 hours of wtll, do you really want to sit and watch 2 hours non stop rmtv ?

Oh yeah sorry if I've got this wrong but fancy not letting you have your Christmas party during work time, sounds like a diabolical liberty to me !

[rehabron]

Greetings one and all.

I work in a mail centre, a very busy mail centre handling large amounts of import mail.
This is all good and Christmas is on the way which means volumes are piling up.
As a result of this increased traffic management have decided to cancel our 30 minutes a week of work time learning.

Now in our 318's which is our contract of employment it specifically states that we are entitled to 30 minutes a week work time listening and learning.
Firstly I am wondering if there is a case of Royal mail breaking their contractual obligations to us as postpersons in denying us this time.
Is there a clause somewhere within Royal mail literature that specifically states that under periods of intense pressure this 30 minutes a week can be cancelled?
Could ultimately Royal mail be taken to an employment tribunal and made to pay us back this time?

Secondly management have decided to cancel our Christmas party, a party we very successfully had last year.
My argument to management will be that because for four weeks you have denied us this 30 minutes a week then you effectively owe us two hours.
This two hours could be used to have our Christmas party on December 24th at around twelve noon and we could all go home after.

What do people think of this logical approach.
What will Royal mail management come back with as a counter argument?

Any comments greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Your P318 is not your contract of employment but a directory of your programme of work which RM included within the P318 a period of 30 minutes for WTLL to keep staff familiar with information on the day to day running of the business.
You will be familiar with having been told that your P318 is a guideline only and is subject to alteration for operational requirements.
Due to the increase workload at this time of year RM has withdrawn this worktime education to be replaced by operational work.
You will collectively have to take the matter of the cancellation of your Christmas party to management if there is nothing for you to do after noon on the 24th December.

[mobydick1974]

318's are a guide
somewhere on your 318 it should say that
your contact is the hours you work...no breaking law

[glenfiddich]

wtl's got sidelined here ages ago 30 mins per man savings dom must be raking it in

[Cyclopz]

Well it's always worth a try.

This is Christmas after all and we should be rewarded for all the extra hard work we have done.

Some sort of recognition and hopefully some free food at least.

That's reasonable isn't it?

[brettt]

WTLL do not have to take place during the Christmas pressure period.

[Cyclopz]

WTLL do not have to take place during the Christmas pressure period.

Can you prove that?

I mean where's your evidence?

[brettt]

WTLL do not have to take place during the Christmas pressure period.

Can you prove that?

I mean where's your evidence?

Not got to hand but it's covered under APPENDIX B WORK TIME LEARNING STANDARD SPECIFICATION

I doubt most DOM's actually know this though.

[Cyclopz]

WTLL do not have to take place during the Christmas pressure period.

Can you prove that?

I mean where's your evidence?

Not got to hand but it's covered under APPENDIX B WORK TIME LEARNING STANDARD SPECIFICATION

I doubt most DOM's actually know this though.

Thanks for that.

My reading for the week.

[Cyclopz]

From the link suggested under the paragraph headed:

"APPENDIX B WORK TIME LEARNING STANDARDS SPECIFICATION"
http://www.cwu-e4.co.uk/Training_Partne ... eement.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WTL sessions will be scheduled for between 46 -48 weeks of the year. The exclusion will
be for the Xmas pressure period.

Oh dear.

This doesn't look good.

[Mr_Pink]

Some sort of recognition and hopefully some free food at least.

That's reasonable isn't it?

Its hard to believe we all work for the same company, free food and recognition! Nearest we get to free food is a xmas cake raffle, I hate xmas cake and as for recognition I guess i'll have to be happy with my 50 stamps.

We very rarely have WTLL, the room its held in is too small for us all to fit in, so we have a 5 minute huddle. Sometimes...

[minx]

my wattle is always on a day when i am not in and there is no effort made by manager to bring me up to date with what I've missed if you complain manager says they are under pressure

[dvbuk55]

WTLL do not have to take place during the Christmas pressure period.

Can you prove that?

I mean where's your evidence?

Well it may well be in the same place as the evidence for you to have a 2 hour freebie Christmas party in works time

[Cyclopz]

WTLL do not have to take place during the Christmas pressure period.

Can you prove that?

I mean where's your evidence?

Well it may well be in the same place as the evidence for you to have a 2 hour freebie Christmas party in works time

I've got roughly three weeks to come up with something.
Some convincing argument.
At least get management to buy us some free food after working so hard.