Seniority under attack at the Basingstoke Delivery Office

[TADLEYMUSH]

Yesterday (Tuesday 10/02/2014) We were all called to a meeting at the Basingstoke Delivery Office to be informed by the DOM that Royal Mail were introducing a two tier seniority system at our office. Basically, they are going to take 36 of our duties in the forthcoming revision and award them all to part time staff regardless of current seniority.

I'm absolutely disgusted by this as it will almost certainly mean that I will busted back down to a reserve, will lose my one in six weeks off and will end up getting a random day off every week which I will be informed of at short notice.. The thought of being treated like a piece of $h1t, being shuffled from pillar to post and ordered to go and work at other offices nearby does not bear thinking about.

The union are naturally fighting the proposed changes to the seniority system, and the situation has now developed to a stage three disagreement.

It has always been my understanding that our seniority system was only legal in employment law on the basis that it rewarded loyalty, with loyalty being a comodity that can be rewarded with perks. In my line of thought I reckon this new two tier sysem of seniority must therefore be illegal because it kicks people in the teeth that have been loyal.

I plan to fight this hideous proposal that Royal Mail have made, and have written to our local union branch requesting access to an employment lawyer.

Does anybody have any knowledge of Royal Mail attempting this sort of thing before?

Perhapes it is happening at other offices?

Maybe it is coming to your office soon.

[wabbithunta]

Surely this post is better off being in the Union Room, as much as it has here, but for advice etc?

[raged1999]

Whether this post gets moved or not, I would like to see an answer to this. The very same proposal is being put forward for our office.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

removing seniority is not illegal in any way shape or form, yes its unpopular etc but no law is being broken

what reason did they give for doing this? as technically there is no real reason for actually needing to do it, as all delivery spans in the office "should" be the same thus it shouldnt matter what round anyone does, (though a slight adjustment due to drivers/non drivers may be needed) it basically comes down to dom not wanting to put i proper planning to make it all work

[Kobi72]

I personally can't see a problem with this...seniority is dated & ridiculous! It doesn't happen in any other company! Thing is people hate change in Royal Mail,cause loads of people have had it far to easy for far to long! I welcome change!

[dvbuk55]

I personally can't see a problem with this...seniority is dated & ridiculous! It doesn't happen in any other company! Thing is people hate change in Royal Mail,cause loads of people have had it far to easy for far to long! I welcome change!

Of course you do, erm as a matter of interest how much seniority do YOU have?

[P13]

I personally can't see a problem with this...seniority is dated & ridiculous! It doesn't happen in any other company! Thing is people hate change in Royal Mail,cause loads of people have had it far to easy for far to long! I welcome change!

Can you suggest an alternative to seniority?

[GT85]

How many p/t staff do you have ? and how are these 36 walks going to be awarded, maybe on seniority ?

[Ahebban]

I am guessing that Basingstoke management will be looking to make 'x' number of duties part-time as part of their Revision, perhaps encouraging VRs, Buy-downs etc.

Seniority is still applicable as it is covered under the Way Forward Agreement (Seniorty - 13.1 to 13.10).

When the new duty structure is agreed, seniority will be applied to the re-sign as covered in the section - Resourcing Jobs During Major Change, 16.1 to 16.5.

It might be argued that as 'seniority' is part of a nationally-agreed agreement, it is part of your contract with Royal Mail, thereby, falls under the terms and conditions of your employment, making the use of seniority legally-binding on the employer. It certainly warrants going through the IR Framework.

Methinks further guidelines will appear at some point from a hastily convened forum under the ever-watchful eye of Bob ... Bring out the

[genesis]

I personally can't see a problem with this...seniority is dated & ridiculous! It doesn't happen in any other company! Thing is people hate change in Royal Mail,cause loads of people have had it far to easy for far to long! I welcome change!

People who might not like seniority,might change their mind when they actually have it ,did you know that there was a system a long time ago when postmen had stripes on their arm for length of service?.What Im experiencing ,is one of the worst walks ever to be implemented 4hrs in theory 5 hours plus more like.steep,steps, drives etc. all the way Because of revisions,and no resigns or dutys on the board for 10 years. So what you have in our city office is pot luck.So in conclusion a junior man would be welcome to mine.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

I am not 100 percent in favour of seniority however it is transparent show me a system which is fairer and most importantly transparent that a Dom can't mess about with and I will go for that but until that system arises it's seniority for me

[knoxycube]

It has already happened in our office. 5 vrs, 2 buys downs. 21 full timers then picked first then all the part timers picked with most of them getting there own duty or becoming a floater. Then the rest of the full timers picked and most of them became reserves and the union agreed to it all.

[POSTMAN]

seniority.PNG

[chrisj]

The same sort of post and concern keeps coming up; are these people just going thtrough the same Revision that most started and have had for the last 4 years.

I will like to know whether zx's office has actually had a Revision and whether they have gone Paired walks and Shared vans. He keeps repeating the same thing about no need to stream the walks into FT and PT; but that is what is happening up and down the country for the last 4 years.

And there are good reasons for doing things that way - I refer the answer to various posts from Clash and Fishtank... No point just coming up with the same things based on nothing substantial or nothing related to the whole purpose of the Revision and business model.

This is not really all about Seniority! It is more about restructuring and workers cannot challenge that - because it is up to the business how it is run and someone has to be Reserves.

Seniority is not under attack; it will still be used to pick duties within the streams of duties available. Sad that this poster has been shoved back a bit but there will always be winners and loser with change.

I shall like an answer for zx. Is he saying that in hos office that they FT/FT combos (in their shared walks? )all over the place and that almost all their Reserves are Pters. And how big is this office - do they have more than 70 members of staff?

[clashcityrocker]

Postie A and Postie B are both f/t on a shared walk.
Postie A prep their 2 duties while Postie B preps the duties for Posties C and D who are both p/t.
Postie And B are not allowed to leave before the indoor work of posties C and D is complete.
Easy.

F/T days off are covered by postie E. He is a f/t floater.
When Postie A is on holiday. His duty is covered by postie F.
Postie F is a p/t reserve. In order for him to complete postie A's duty he needs to be given overtime.
Or:
Some offices have preferred to keep f/t reserves to cover f/t duties.

I can't see any need for pairing f/t with p/t on a shared walk.