Returning to Royal Mail

[Seymour Buts]

Do it, if you can. The money is decent for what we do as you've mentioned and you're in the same boat as I was (I assume) in that you can risk the drop in contracted hours because of the pay difference. I started on a 24 hour contract and earnt the same as my old 9-5 job. 3 years later I'm on a 30 hour contract and have signed for my rest day, meaning I'm effectively on a 36 hour contract. I even get paid for my rest day on leave because I've signed for it. I also do afternoon collections; on a good week I can earn 600 quid (ish) which is great for non skilled labour I think.

Many moan, but I suspect it's a because we're a unionised industry and somebody once told me never be content with your terms and conditions because you should always strive for better which is fair enough I guess.

On the negatives: certain offices will only recruit now on flexible contracts, they can include Sundays or even afternoons depending on how they do their collections. I think I probably started at just the right time to be honest.

How on earth can you earn up to £600 a week on 30 hours ? Even if you worked 8 hours on day off surely that would mean nearer £400 a week. I’m starting next week on 25 hours so I’m new to this.

Overtime.

Just my basic maths 38 x 11 = £418. Where does the rest come from ?

600 is a very good week to be fair. It's when I've done two hours early prepping in the morning, two hours extra delivery and then two hours on a collection on the evening. That's a twelve hour day; I've done that two or three days in a week before. I also do collections virtually every afternoon, and have signed for my rest day meaning I work my rest day every week. We're always crazy short in terms of staff numbers at our office though, it's not the same at every office so I'm told.

[Seagull1983]

Do it, if you can. The money is decent for what we do as you've mentioned and you're in the same boat as I was (I assume) in that you can risk the drop in contracted hours because of the pay difference. I started on a 24 hour contract and earnt the same as my old 9-5 job. 3 years later I'm on a 30 hour contract and have signed for my rest day, meaning I'm effectively on a 36 hour contract. I even get paid for my rest day on leave because I've signed for it. I also do afternoon collections; on a good week I can earn 600 quid (ish) which is great for non skilled labour I think.

Many moan, but I suspect it's a because we're a unionised industry and somebody once told me never be content with your terms and conditions because you should always strive for better which is fair enough I guess.

On the negatives: certain offices will only recruit now on flexible contracts, they can include Sundays or even afternoons depending on how they do their collections. I think I probably started at just the right time to be honest.

How on earth can you earn up to £600 a week on 30 hours ? Even if you worked 8 hours on day off surely that would mean nearer £400 a week. I’m starting next week on 25 hours so I’m new to this.

Overtime.

Just my basic maths 38 x 11 = £418. Where does the rest come from ?

600 is a very good week to be fair. It's when I've done two hours early prepping in the morning, two hours extra delivery and then two hours on a collection on the evening. That's a twelve hour day; I've done that two or three days in a week before. I also do collections virtually every afternoon, and have signed for my rest day meaning I work my rest day every week. We're always crazy short in terms of staff numbers at our office though, it's not the same at every office so I'm told.

Thanks for that. Newbie was getting confused!