xmas overtime favouritism

[mrsavaloy]

hello to everyone,
i work as a collection driver and as usual some part time drivers in my office are made up to full time for the pressure period.
this is i was told is based on seniority, i have noted that 3 people above me have been made up and one below me.
when i questioned this i was told that this is because the lower person is a relief driver (covering any duties as needed) the driver has the same contractual hours as i do although he is very popular with the manager, do i have to miss out on 3 weeks of overtime that i could badly do with?
it seems our office runs a systems of favouritism over seniority as i suspect many offices do
any comments gladly received

[yubin282]

yeah i agree, i got the grand total of 15 hours overtime over the entire christmas pressure last year and the grand total of f**k all the previous year

some people were working 50-60 hours a week but fairs fair

[wannabeek]

This seems entirely normal in the business. I'm usually the sole 'clearer-upper' in the office, doing all leftovers on any and all rounds during the year. However, as soon as Xmas appears, every duty holder is suddenly very keen to work their days off and complete their rounds to the bitter ends, and thus my usual overtime drops to zero every winter. Quite nice for me really as the weather gets cruddy.

I originally naively thought that this was because of some loyalty of these old posties to their customers over the Xmas period, but soon realised that they just don't want some random guy to happen upon the envelope addressed 'to the postie' on the door over Christmas time, even though I've been the one delivering the otherwise-failed mail all during the year!

[korky]

we have 2 drivers in the same van doing parcels on overtime at xmas regardless of how many spare vans are parked up, for some reason every other driver wanting this overtime must go out on their own?

[bigbazza]

Sounds about right it's not what you know it's who you blow.
They can shove the overtime where the sun don't shine.

[bogstandard]

hello to everyone,
i work as a collection driver and as usual some part time drivers in my office are made up to full time for the pressure period.
this is i was told is based on seniority, i have noted that 3 people above me have been made up and one below me.
when i questioned this i was told that this is because the lower person is a relief driver (covering any duties as needed) the driver has the same contractual hours as i do although he is very popular with the manager, do i have to miss out on 3 weeks of overtime that i could badly do with?
it seems our office runs a systems of favouritism over seniority as i suspect many offices do
any comments gladly received

yuo need to get your rep and area rep onto this asap.

[mrsavaloy]

thanks bogstandard
but i asked my union rep and he confirmed that this was the correct way to allocate "being made up"

[mightyowler]

I applied to be made up from 20hrs to full time during Christmas pressure but haven't received any extra hours, but we have 6 agencies drivers on full time duties this week???

Seriously losing patience with Royal Mail tbh, nobody within the union seems bothered so I am considering leaving after Xmas, 9 years of petty games is finally taking is toll.

[mrsavaloy]

it seems a sad fact that seniority is only used at a re-sign for us collection drivers
my manager has given other positions to his friends instead of advertising them to everyone,
positions that pay an extra weekly allowance.
my union rep is aware of the managers behaviour although nothing is done about it.
my manager has a small group of friends who get everything overtime/perks etc
the rest of us get nothing
i also found out that its best to get your work done and keep your mouth shut about the managers behaviour
or you suffer bullying, loads of extra calls being placed on your collection
in the office if you forget to change one tab in a box
or any other small petty thing that can be blamed on you
i could list loads of other things
why do the union let this continue?
what happened to equality in the workplace?
it simply doesn't exist
i laugh at the courier with all the smiling faces nothing can be more from the truth
our workplace is ran by bullying managers who look after their friends while the union reps let them get away with it
i to are going to cancel my union membership in the new year