100% privatised one day, agency workers in the next

[Hitcher]

Not Angard here - Manpower.

[Claudiasdad]

The agency worker who appeared at our do last week was sent out with no hi viz and he was wearing scruffy joggers and a black hoody, I'm amazed no one stopped him pushing the trolley up the road!!

Whatever happened to standards ? I know they aren't posties but what would the public think with tramps delivering our mail? When I started 17 years ago we had to have shined shoes and shirt and tie on too, agency staff look like ragamuffins and some posties too!! To look at some pasties you wouldn't think uniform is free when you see it dirty ripped and hanging off them

[dave0876]

It's quite simple do what I did, take them out and if your not a work place coach don't coach.Dont take it out on the agency worker it's not there fault they simply want to earn a wage just like ourselves.My result was ten bags going back out of 21 over two deliveries on a Tuesday hence not sent out with me the day after.Its not for us to make it easy for Royal Mail to flood the place with agency let the managers and work place coach do the training.I'm a Rep and I want vacant duties covered by permanent staff employed by royal Mail on the same hourly rate as everyone else and I hope everyone who reads this takes my advice don't make it easy for them to flood the place with agency workers.

[motherhubbard]

.I'm a Rep and I want vacant duties covered by permanent staff employed by royal Mail on the same hourly rate as everyone else

If however you have a fully staffed office, it is going to make it very hard, if not impossible to manage the reduction in hours as we always have.
And there will be further reductions in hours because it isn't IF we go to one wave but WHEN.
It isn't IF they sequence the flats it is WHEN.
And realistically I don't think it is IF we go to a 5 day service, it is just a matter of when is it politically expedient?

And each change will bring drastic cuts and realistically I don't see this business doing that without recourse to compulsory redundancies.

[wannabeek]

Ok, so just give up the fight because doom is inevitable is your advice? That would suck.

[dave0876]

I don't understand why you quoted me and then replied with nothing to do with what I said.

[motherhubbard]

I don't understand why you quoted me and then replied with nothing to do with what I said.

The fewer staff in post, the fewer redundancies.

[motherhubbard]

Ok, so just give up the fight because doom is inevitable is your advice? That would suck.

Fight all you like but there isn't much point in waving a fist in front of an oncoming juggernaut.

[Hitcher]

.I'm a Rep and I want vacant duties covered by permanent staff employed by royal Mail on the same hourly rate as everyone else

If however you have a fully staffed office, it is going to make it very hard, if not impossible to manage the reduction in hours as we always have.
And there will be further reductions in hours because it isn't IF we go to one wave but WHEN.
It isn't IF they sequence the flats it is WHEN.
And realistically I don't think it is IF we go to a 5 day service, it is just a matter of when is it politically expedient?

And each change will bring drastic cuts and realistically I don't see this business doing that without recourse to compulsory redundancies.

Sequence flats! They don't even sequence all the letters as it is.

[SpacePhoenix]

.I'm a Rep and I want vacant duties covered by permanent staff employed by royal Mail on the same hourly rate as everyone else

If however you have a fully staffed office, it is going to make it very hard, if not impossible to manage the reduction in hours as we always have.
And there will be further reductions in hours because it isn't IF we go to one wave but WHEN.
It isn't IF they sequence the flats it is WHEN.
And realistically I don't think it is IF we go to a 5 day service, it is just a matter of when is it politically expedient?

And each change will bring drastic cuts and realistically I don't see this business doing that without recourse to compulsory redundancies.

Sequence flats! They don't even sequence all the letters as it is.

If RM do decide to introduce these then there'll be a lot less indoor work in DOs , I'd assume that anything that can't be processed by them would get sent as a small parcel

http://www.cwu.org/assets/_files/docume ... &_Lett.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.cwu.org/assets/_files/docume ... Machin.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[motherhubbard]

I'm a Rep .

So just as a matter of interest how far in advance were you told the agency workers would be arriving?
If it was at a resourcing meeting, why did you not go to disagreement about their use because you wanted the vacancies filled by RM staff?

Was there union agreement at any level about their introduction?

[dave0876]

Yes was agreed by area rep as a TEMPORARY fix whilst those that have been recruited by royal mail go through security checks we are ten down been banging my head against a brick wall for 8 months about recruitment now dsm is bricking it with Xmas round the corner.

[FinishOnTime]

Dunno why people are talking about casuals like its a new thing in deliveries, I started that way about 17 years ago. I got poached, I even think they had to pay a transfer fee!

[Minischoles]

The reason for so many agency isn't just christmas as usual, but because Royal Mail (in the Mail Centres, DOs etc anyway) are massively short - as in someone high up set the targets and 2,000 people ended up being given VR when they shouldn't have been offered it.

Cue the mad scramble now to recruit not just 2,000 people to fill those vacancies, but also to recruit more to cover attrition (long term sickness, old age, quitting etc) and on top of that get the usual numbers of agency - all at the same time as they're competing against better jobs, for example in most areas they're offering agency minimum wage while going up against jobs that offer much more per hour.

[t3mcIUQWE2]

The whole of Plymouth will be walking out on Monday over this.