I and two colleagues work in a small non mech office which acts as a hub for satellite offices under us. We are drivers primarily conveying mail to the satellites during the course of the early morning, though currently we also do as much IPS we can manage for our parent office, that in between preparing the vehicles for the morning runs, unloading/loading mail received from our mech office during the course of the night.
At the moment two of us are on shift per night we work 11-30PM to 09-30AM four nights a week in a rotation that gives us a midweek break one week a long weekend another but ultimately we work 4 nights per week. Recently there was an EVR preference exercise carried out at the office and while the three of us took an interest the offer we all received made it a non starter, however two others have taken up the offer and are looking to leave. As a result of this our manager has proposed changes to the nights which involve a reduction from 3 members of staff to 2 and a change to five day working starting Monday night at 01-30AM until 09-30AM.
There are other options that we could consider if we no longer want to do the night shift, but to be honest two of us at the moment do nights not for the monetary value they hold, but because they are the best option for us in our current situation with regard to our health. That may sound a contradiction as nights are not the best for anyones health but it suits our current positions, this certainly might change for one of my colleagues but in regard to myself it is unlikely I will be "fully capable" any time soon, so much of what is available as an alternative is not suitable.
In our area we are the last non mech office that has nights, so inevitably we have been looking over our shoulders for some time, but where we are is a little unique and poses problems at this time to fully close the office due to the distance from the main mech office in the area and the roads that serve some of our satellites.
We have been trying to put our heads together to try and put a case forward to avoid this change in pattern and reduction in our jobs, but have not managed to really find a strong argument to put up, and at this point I must unfortunately say our unit rep is one of those chocolate fire guard types when it comes to challenging issues. he has little experience and has been bushwhacked previously on numerous occasions by the current manager so we are likely to have to approach the area reps at some point as the changes will affect the mech office and their servicing of our office. There are also going to be issues with the Sunday night Monday morning coverage of our shifts which the manager has said will be covered on Sch O/T (only the driving bit) I don't think he has thought through the drivers rules and how they would apply to those doing the overtime and the resultant consequences, something they struggle over now due to a lack of "reserve" drivers and will only worsen should these new changes be adopted.
We are loathe to point out the issues covering drivers hours etc, it might be more beneficial to sit back and watch the egg fly at the proverbial face
but we do need to try and find a way of persuading the manager to rethink .... so with that in mind do any on here who may have experienced a similar situation have any bright ideas and a suitable argument that could be put forward against the changes ??????