What circumstances for 30 Mins Flexing?

[BeamishStout]

Under what circumstances can management ask for the 30 mins flexing?

The agreement is pretty vague about the sort of conditions that lead to the situation that happened today in our LDO. Basically we were snowed under with trayed mech mail (electoral registration to every household) and I suspect that the loose mail was also inflated because there was not enough time to run the usual amount through the CSS machines so it was double-whammy. Only the packets were the 'normal' amount for a Monday. Not known a Monday like this for a very long time. Thing is when there is an absolute deluge then the 30 mins 'flexibility' would not and does not cover such a situation. I ended up taking the hit today (my choice) but only on the assurance that I would be paid for all the overtime I did today (put in a docket for 1.5 hours).

The other thing that they tried (and failed to do) was to try the 'you had an easy Saturday' and 'we will get you away early on Tuesday to make up for it'. This idea of 'swings and roundabouts' is all well and good but only if staff are willing and able to perform such flexing is how I perceive the agreement we signed up to.

[General Mannerheim]

I thought most Dom's use this mantra.

I ran out of gas! I got a flat tire! I didn’t have change for cab fare! I lost my tux at the cleaners! I locked my keys in the car! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

[apple]

26 February 2015
LTB 125/15 Flexibility in Delivery Offices Clarification

No. 125 /15
Ref: 230.03
Date: 26th February 2015

To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague,

Flexibility in Delivery Offices - Clarification

It has become apparent having attended the Unit Reps Briefings and membership meetings recently that Royal Mail managers are not following national agreements and guidelines etc when it comes to flexibility in Delivery Offices. For ease of reference the words contained in the Integrated Delivery Programme of the Agenda for Growth states the following.

Point of Clarification on 30 mins Flexibility
Both parties re-affirm their commitment to the 30 minute flexibility arrangements within the Pay and Modernisation agreement. The following provides clarification of the agreed approach.

Where necessary, for example when traffic volumes are unexpectedly high or resourcing issues arise, individuals may be asked and may themselves request to vary their duty times by up to 30 minutes on a swings and roundabouts basis. Individual circumstances will be taken into account and total weekly contractual hours will not change. This means that individuals may flex their duty times by up to 30 minutes on any given day and this will be balanced either way over the next 5 working days. However this period can be extended by local agreement. A local record will be kept. Any requirement to change times of attendance or flex will take into account individual's personal obligations and responsibilities.

There is no other agreement in place between Royal Mail and the CWU that overrides or supersedes this statement. To be absolutely clear any hours worked before or after official duty times should attract the appropriate overtime payment, unless there is an arrangement agreed in line with the above.

Where managers continue to insist that working beyond duty time is part of some imaginary flexibility agreement then a disagreement should be put in place to resolve the matter using the IR Framework.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson's Office, quoting reference 230.03
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org



this question was asked of dave ward the head of the union his response
- Is there anything in any agreement anywhere that states that a
manager can bank hours? Only numerous times we inform management that we will
not be able to complete. –
the current Flexibility agreement states that you can be asked to flex up
to 30 minutes, however this must be voluntary and paid back within 5 working days.
We haven’t agreed that managers can bank the hours in scenarios were individuals
have worked over their time or in the example above it is repeated time and time
again and in those examples you should be being paid the additional time. If this is
the case please see your Local, Area Rep or contact your local Branch.
Yours sincerely

[eastie]

I go for the easy life, work to my time no lapsing or O/T Simples

[Dorset Plodder]

Manager must have had a rocket up his arse....his latest "Plan" is ..."NO OVERTIME will be paid, it's working to resources (as agreed with the CWU) I've to make sure you get out of the door with sufficient time to complete your duty". What happens if I'm out on delivery and I realise that I'm not going to finish on time? Do I phone you up and tell you? "No ...Once you've left the office you must complete your Delivery"! What a load of Bollocks

He thought Flexing was the answer.... I had to explain to him that..... fine Flexing gets you off with paying 30 mins overtime, but if you think that's all the overtime that going to occur in the average week then you're living in dream land. What are you going to do when more overtime accrues? "We'll sort that out when it happens". Yeah nothing like planning ahead is there? Never Mind Lions led by Donkeys....It's Posties led by Dickheads!

[Bahia Feliz]

I go for the easy life, work to my time no lapsing or O/T Simples

How do you get away with no 'lapsing'?

[eastie]

I go for the easy life, work to my time no lapsing or O/T Simples

How do you get away with no 'lapsing'?

by starting at your normal work time, taking your 40 minutes meal relief and finishing at your finish time
. No time for lapsing as it means going over

[coxie]

I don't lapse either, I cut off every day of the week so no time for lapsing, get done sometimes if it's a really light Tuesday. If they ask me to flex I say sure if I can finish half an hour early tomorrow, they always want to offer you the crappy end of the deal so when I say this , they say no and then I say sorry I'm not flexing. If I give them time at the end I want it back at the end not the morning.

[Jack Rouse]

Management cannot bank hours.

It is the managers job to see that you have enough work to fill your hours.

Flexing is down to the individual, management cannot insist you flex.

If you do, then it has to be paid back in the same week, if any in our office flex, they always claim it back on a Saturday.

You must not do overtime to do lapsing, most managers will try and get around this by telling you to do the lapsing first... fine do that, then cut off, the following day you wont be able to lapse because you are behind on your own delivery.

[NWpostie]

I've always said no to any 30 mins flex because I know they won't keep their end of deal, so it's quite easy and satisfying to refuse.

[bogstandard]

management are reliant on you. They believe and quite rightly in some cases that you will complete your delivery no matter what as you will only return to this work if you don't tomorrow and do it then. If, like in our office, you are asked to do lapsing and your lapsing is the same area day in and day out then this is now your delivery. Some cannot grasp this and still view it as not theirs even though they do it all the while and even tell others it's thier lapsing.

Crickey, work to your time and do your job properly. It's not rocket science.

[steve1873]

Manager must have had a rocket up his arse....his latest "Plan" is ..."NO OVERTIME will be paid, it's working to resources (as agreed with the CWU) I've to make sure you get out of the door with sufficient time to complete your duty". What happens if I'm out on delivery and I realise that I'm not going to finish on time? Do I phone you up and tell you? "No ...Once you've left the office you must complete your Delivery"! What a load of Bollocks

He thought Flexing was the answer.... I had to explain to him that..... fine Flexing gets you off with paying 30 mins overtime, but if you think that's all the overtime that going to occur in the average week then you're living in dream land. What are you going to do when more overtime accrues? "We'll sort that out when it happens". Yeah nothing like planning ahead is there? Never Mind Lions led by Donkeys....It's Posties led by Dickheads!

I think you are misunderstanding flexing. Overtime isn't paid. You are supposed to get the 30 mins back at some point in the same working week (or it could be withing 7 days, not sure).

[Jack Rouse]

As far as I understood it, flexing was introduced to allow for unexpected changes in the workload, that is less mail than expected or more mail than expected on a particular day, on a particular duty, this would be if you had mail shot arrive, or a lorry broke down with the second wave.

As far as I am aware it cannot be used on a regular basis to avoid overtime payments.

Flexing has to be agreed by both parties, management and the postie, if you don't want to do it, then you don't.

[postslippete]

Ive never done any 30 mins flex


They can ask but I just say no. The idea is that you will work 30 mins past your time for nothing - in return for finishing half an hour earlier the following day. So what if you tell them that you think that you are going to go over by an hour - Does that mean that you can leave an hour earlier tomorrow by having say 2 loops taken off the duty??

When I remind them of this, it never happens. Instead what does happen on busy days is that a loop or two gets taken off because the duty is already too big.

[BeamishStout]

Having thought a little more about it perhaps the following should be the approach by LDO's that suddenly have an unexpected spike in mail/absence. Let us have 3 options specified at at briefings when such circumstances occur:

(1) Ask to invoke the flexibility clause and allow us to claw back the 30 mins within 5 days (should we be stupid enough to go with this option ). But this is VOLUNTARY (as it was always designed to be)

(2) They can ask people to work overtime to clear that delivery/duty and be paid accordingly without jumping through hoops to get it (such as pre-booking/estimating overtime and intimating that it won't be paid if you don't pre-book/estimate). Again this is purely VOLUNTARY without any stigma attached if this is also refused.

(3) Let us take enough work out to take us 'to our time' without recrimination/comments/snide remarks.

Just seems to me that most of of LINOS/LDOs are hell-bent in thinking that option 1 will always cure the short-term headaches. You invariably get more out of your workforce if you treat them as mature adults (which I think most of us are).