van sharing/ pick of duties

[patpatpat]

Hello there,

we had van sharing in our office brought in about a year or so ago, but not all duties had to share vans [inc the 5 rural duties, one of which is the union reps... surprise surprise..]

anyway, he said that we werent having a pick of shifts bla bla bla, but instead we would be having a vote... to see if we wanted a pick of shifts. now, this is very unfair on some people in our office who have been forced into shared van duties as the 5 rurals voted no, also the guys with low seniority voted no, it was a total carve up and i am actually disgusted with it all. basically my shift and others like me who have been with royal mail for over 20 years are getting decided on by people who have been there half the time... it's no on and surely is not right??

what happened in other offices when van sharing was brought in?

did seniority just go out the window?????


thanks.

[glenfiddich]

we had a proper repick based on seniority so the reps cushy duty got picked by a senior man

[patpatpat]

Why is it that some places had a repick yet our office had a vote.... to see if there would be a pick. This suited all those on cushy shifts/not wanting put on backshift or those on single van duties. Its a disgrace.

[Ricardo44]

I thought a repick was mandatory after a revision and that it was in the way forward agreement.

Somebody on here with better knowledge than me may be able to confirm if this is true or not.

Sounds like you've been stitched up.

[rehabron]

This should have not gone to a vote as there is agreed procedures in place for full resign and revisions and a vote is not one of them unless you have a local or collective agreement in place that as been signed off allowing for deviation from national agreements
The employees who have been disadvantaged by this unorthodox system of repick will first have to ascertain if local agreement is in force and failing that take the matter to area rep for a stage 1 disagreement to be lodged and for status quo to be maintained and moved to the industrial relations framework.

[patpatpat]

This should have not gone to a vote as there is agreed procedures in place for full resign and revisions and a vote is not one of them unless you have a local or collective agreement in place that as been signed off allowing for deviation from national agreements
The employees who have been disadvantaged by this unorthodox system of repick will first have to ascertain if local agreement is in force and failing that take the matter to area rep for a stage 1 disagreement to be lodged and for status quo to be maintained and moved to the industrial relations framework.

So what would be the way for us to approach this, as every time we raise it in the office we just get laughed off.... or told we had a vote just accept it... yeah accept that people who have worked here for half the time as a lot of us now decide what shift we are on???? magic eh.

the rep in our office is hopeless and all he is concerned about is keeping him and his gang of rural pals on their cushy numbers. There was a lady how was meant to be van sharing, but she moaned and groaned and got her own way with her stand alone duty and in the process she made a shift that was stand alone now van share... you have the rurals who wont vote for a pick, you have the husband and wife who both have stand alone duties and won't vote for a pick, you have the full timer who will end up on the backshift in the event of a yes vote, that won't vote for a pick, [to get full time i had to do backshift for a few years and split shifts as well] its a vote that we had no chance of winning...... The other thing is that due to this some of us are now stuck sharing vans with part timers who really are a joke, they come into their shift all made up for them, all they gotta do is tie it up and i kid you not it takes them an hour at the very least to do this, thus having the knock on effect of making us finish a lot later than the other shifts in the office. the mantra in our office seems to be that the more hopeless you are the more you get done for you, and people like me who have been with the company for over 20 years are sick to the back teeth of it.

How do we get fairness in our office? do i contact the area rep? or the area manager? si

[NewPostieUK]

In my office, town walks were paired up to create van shares. The duty holders kept their duties. I'm not sure if the duties were paired up to match a driver with a non-driver, but if not, then it was pure luck that each van share had a driver and there was very little movement of personnel. Rurals weren't touched. Don't think there was any need for a repick.

[patpatpat]

This should have not gone to a vote as there is agreed procedures in place for full resign and revisions and a vote is not one of them unless you have a local or collective agreement in place that as been signed off allowing for deviation from national agreements
The employees who have been disadvantaged by this unorthodox system of repick will first have to ascertain if local agreement is in force and failing that take the matter to area rep for a stage 1 disagreement to be lodged and for status quo to be maintained and moved to the industrial relations framework.

the crap the rep spouts about not having a repick is that not 30% of your shift has changed?? sure we may not had had 30% more doors added but we have had van sharing added and that to me is a 100% change as we never used to do it, the rep uses this all the time to fob us off.

[patpatpat]

In my office, town walks were paired up to create van shares. The duty holders kept their duties. I'm not sure if the duties were paired up to match a driver with a non-driver, but if not, then it was pure luck that each van share had a driver and there was very little movement of personnel. Rurals weren't touched. Don't think there was any need for a repick.

that would be fine if the duty holders were happy mate, we are not as there are people in the office with half our service now deciding what shift we go on, while they sit on single van duties.. it's a joke.

[dave0876]

That is bullshit if every walk in your office has changed which I suspect it has having gone through the revision process then that automatically triggers a resign.

[patpatpat]

That is bullshit if every walk in your office has changed which I suspect it has having gone through the revision process then that automatically triggers a resign.

there are 17 duties,

4 non vans and 4 vans have now paired up, 8 shifts total. then you have 4 rurals, 2 single duties, backshift and phg, total 9 duties.

so just under 50% of the total shifts have been changed, the office 3 miles from us has had 2 re picks in the time we have had none due to this stupid made up vote to have a repick of duties crap. prob all shifts have changed in some small was as well with shifts not sorting on the main frame in the morning when they used to etc etc [don't know if that matters or not or even counts towards saying that they shifts have been changed?]

we also in the time since van sharing was started, had 1 part timer take vr, 1 part timer paid off on medical grounds, 1 full timer is about to be pensioned off due to ill health, yet none of these duties have been put up for auction???? the full timers shift is just constant being covered by the reserve or another part timer... surely that should be auctioned up?

need more info from on here to fire at our office rep, we are not prepared to be treated like this any longer.

all the advice is much appreciated.

thanks

[rehabron]

If 33 1/3 % of your total duties have been changed significantly then this is a major change or a business driven change and has the effect of a full resign based on seniority with duties ring fenced to accommodate employees within the Equality Act 2010.
Duty holders whose duties have not be effected by change can refrain from the resign or volunteer to place their duties into the resign pot in the hope of securing a better duty.
If your posting is accurate concerning the percentage of total duties significantly changed you need to inform your rep that a full resign is in order under the Way Forward Agreement