Can we have a simple explanation?

[LouBarlow]

Lou you do make me chuckle. What scare stories ? Like when the union predicted the second delivery going? or when absorption came in 2008 ? or that sequencing would be introduced in 2010 ? or later Saturdays , or more part timers ? All scare stories which came in ?

Yes the business believe or not know about batch plans and hence why they want to mover the whole operations window backwards.

In terms of it won't work with walks like ours ? Think about it ?

If you have a walk with 1000 items and less say 700 sequencing letters , 200 manual and 100 parcels.

out of the 700 items based on 90% this would mean 630 letters would be on the first wave and they would not be put into the frame. Lets say the average prep rate and I have gone low was 7 per minute ( all in ) than 90 minutes of prep would be up for grabs at you are no longer putting this into the frame. You won't need to come in at the same time as your role for this part of the workload will be redirections etc.

The remaining 10% of sequencing mail (70 items ) will come in walk sorted to reduce sequencing time and this along with the manual mail of 200 would be sorted into the frame. That 270 items at an average prep rate of 7 that would take 39 mins approximately.

Ultimately with the introduction of 16 CELLLs machine across the UK which walk sort and sequence manual and flats. Royal Mail"s aim will be to move the first wave to 90% and than remove the use of the frame as this will allow them to merge more delivery units and for them to sell buildings.

I am totally opposed to this strategy and will make fight to stop it.

However unlike some of you I don't bury my head in the sand and think we are all making this up and that Royal Mail are such a caring employer they really don't want to introduce a method change which cuts the indoor hourage of delivery offices.

But hey if you don't want to know in the future I will be happy to keep you all in the dark !

No I was thinking more of the scare stories that suddenly started appearing, before the last agreement was presented to us. Similar things that are actually being mentioned again this time a new 'deal of the century' is about to be drawn up for us to swallow.

The whole problem with relying on sequenced mail, is it isn't in any way accurate enough to remove the human element. I can't recall a single day where I have had 100% of my mail sequenced correctly. The reality is, you are still jumping from one point of your frame to another, to put mail into the correct sequence. And that is with letters! You'll understand my scepticism when it comes to potential accuracy of flat sorting.

I'd rather the union concentrate on informing us on pension negotiations i.e. things that impact on staff here and now, not mystical propositions being dreamed up my some 6th former on work experience training, that will be shelved as soon as management actually realise that they won't bloody work. How about that?

[gb93]

Heard all this s**t over 10 year ago in big meetings. All the mail will be sequenced no primary sorting needed no need to sort mail into frame just slot the few loose items of mail we will get in the sequenced mail on a bench
All ft time jobs are to go mail is down not enough work to fill our hours
Here we are 10 years later getting fed the same s**t.
Dingo respect to you for coming on here & giving us some info but sorry these empty threats from RM are really going to have to start being ignored by the union.
One for a starter if RM want to pay us for hours worked judged by the pda call their bluff and say ok but the opg starts the clock on the pda when he actually walks into the office & starts working not when the duty time says he starts see RM arses fall out when they realise they would lose all that free work they get from members.

[jetblack]

We would like a 35 hour week though.

Wouldn't we ?

[gb93]

Already got a ft 32 hour week with 40 min meal relief included
Why would I want a 35 hour week with probability of meal relief not included

[Rommagic]

The work would not get done if everyone started the correct time and had breaks plus no ghost overtime.I can't see 35 hours working anytime soon.

[postslippete]

I'm not one to bury my head in the sand as I've been through many changes working at Royal Mail. But as someone said on here - a line in the sand does need to be drawn somewhere. Well, I think the CWU pension proposal is reasonable, and if we work a shorter working week (35) with less outdoor time, I would only ever accept either earlier or the same start times and finishes, if we worked something like a 4 day week, perhaps working 8 hours a day 7am-3pm, with the breaks added on to make 35 hours??

There is no way that I would ever be prepared to work at 9 to 5 and if the business is thinking that we should work that way, then it really should think again. Its not just my personal preference but its because I honestly don't believe that it wouldn't work. I get Royal Mail's idea for saving money especially on closing and merging offices - but re-using the same frames for other duties? Well, I certainly wouldn't want to be starting a delivery at 1pm. Because that is what will happen. And how on earth are the Special deliveries going to get delivered?? Its hard enough now getting anyone to take the 9am Specials. So starting later may mean that we lose business.

I actually have no problem at all with being monitored to ensure that I work all the hours. This is partly because our duties are HUGE and on some duties just finishing on time is a challenge at the moment. And how about the staff who come in early and don't take breaks and give numerous hours away for free! I agree, this needs to be taken into account if Royal Mail start playing this game. Its not difficult to lock the office to stop people coming in early.

[SpacePhoenix]

The whole problem with relying on sequenced mail, is it isn't in any way accurate enough to remove the human element. I can't recall a single day where I have had 100% of my mail sequenced correctly. The reality is, you are still jumping from one point of your frame to another, to put mail into the correct sequence. And that is with letters! You'll understand my scepticism when it comes to potential accuracy of flat sorting.

Ask your line manager when your DO last updated its A+

[19times]

The work would not get done if everyone started the correct time and had breaks plus no ghost overtime.I can't see 35 hours working anytime soon.

We'll find out in our office next week as to how that goes, Manager told everyone one to one that this is being enforced from next week.

Union Rep has drove this apparently, Runners are up in arms as well as Management I think who were against this (rumour goes)

Ghost overtime is the biggy and is pretty rife in our office.

[LouBarlow]

The whole problem with relying on sequenced mail, is it isn't in any way accurate enough to remove the human element. I can't recall a single day where I have had 100% of my mail sequenced correctly. The reality is, you are still jumping from one point of your frame to another, to put mail into the correct sequence. And that is with letters! You'll understand my scepticism when it comes to potential accuracy of flat sorting.

Ask your line manager when your DO last updated its A+

It's not the odd house here and there, we seem to get chunks of mail in the right place, then jump to another chunk of addresses and back again. It's not a big deal when you are feeding them into a frame, but you can see why it wouldn't work in the scenario put forward.

[SpacePhoenix]

The whole problem with relying on sequenced mail, is it isn't in any way accurate enough to remove the human element. I can't recall a single day where I have had 100% of my mail sequenced correctly. The reality is, you are still jumping from one point of your frame to another, to put mail into the correct sequence. And that is with letters! You'll understand my scepticism when it comes to potential accuracy of flat sorting.

Ask your line manager when your DO last updated its A+

It's not the odd house here and there, we seem to get chunks of mail in the right place, then jump to another chunk of addresses and back again. It's not a big deal when you are feeding them into a frame, but you can see why it wouldn't work in the scenario put forward.

It might still be down to the A+ being wrong as the A+ data is used to write the sort plans for sequencing

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The whole problem with relying on sequenced mail, is it isn't in any way accurate enough to remove the human element. I can't recall a single day where I have had 100% of my mail sequenced correctly. The reality is, you are still jumping from one point of your frame to another, to put mail into the correct sequence. And that is with letters! You'll understand my scepticism when it comes to potential accuracy of flat sorting.

Ask your line manager when your DO last updated its A+

Mine is 100% correct, yet I still have up to 10 letters on a quiet day at the back end that aren't sequenced. Also if the postcode is wrong for the address given, it sorts it to the post code not the street (I usually get 2 of these every day). Then randomly I get non-sequenced mail for other duties at the back as well. Today I had a case where 20 letters were sequenced but had jumped a large gap, at the end of the 20, it went back to fill the gap, with extra letters for the 20 previous.

[fishtank]

I want to see how you juggle three bundles and a PDA and packets and open gates all with two hands.
I've worked with two bundles before when the wave 2 has been late and it's a nightmare of missorting, doubling back and dropping letters. This idea if it is a legitimate idea is bonkers and the union shouldn't be taking it seriously, It wouldn't last a week in the real world.

[Binsey]

The whole problem with relying on sequenced mail, is it isn't in any way accurate enough to remove the human element. I can't recall a single day where I have had 100% of my mail sequenced correctly. The reality is, you are still jumping from one point of your frame to another, to put mail into the correct sequence. And that is with letters! You'll understand my scepticism when it comes to potential accuracy of flat sorting.

Ask your line manager when your DO last updated its A+

Mine is 100% correct, yet I still have up to 10 letters on a quiet day at the back end that aren't sequenced. Also if the postcode is wrong for the address given, it sorts it to the post code not the street (I usually get 2 of these every day). Then randomly I get non-sequenced mail for other duties at the back as well. Today I had a case where 20 letters were sequenced but had jumped a large gap, at the end of the 20, it went back to fill the gap, with extra letters for the 20 previous.

These letters at the back of trays are mail that's between the yellow and blue cards. It's the mail the CSS Machine carnt sequence, and in theory should be kept separate ( a band round).

[daveyeff]

Already got a ft 32 hour week with 40 min meal relief included
Why would I want a 35 hour week with probability of meal relief not included

how is 32 hrs full time?....do tell

[gb93]

Already got a ft 32 hour week with 40 min meal relief included
Why would I want a 35 hour week with probability of meal relief not included

how is 32 hrs full time?....do tell

Couldn't possibly give the secret away my whole office would lynch me
Aw go on then I will it's a excellent office work ethic