Seniority, is it ageist?

Dingo99 · Post by **Dingo99** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:19

In my office we keep having talk of a possible resign. Now this worries me as I am a duty holder on a okay duty but the fact is I am knowledgable about who is who, where I can get rid of packets etc. Anyway I have been with RM since DEC 2009, but my seniority only runs from I think late 2013 since I was shafted constantly being on rolling contracts with Angard. Anyway I don't see why I should get put on a shi* duty just cause most of my colleagues have been in the job longer. I only became a duty holder by the skin of my teeth as my part time colleague had slightly less seniority than me. Why not go by merit? I have been doing this duty on and off and now continuously for years and can reel off everyone's name practically on my duty, I wouldn't like to get put on the High ST for e.g just because my near retirement colleague has been in the job longer! It sucks and this same colleague thinks that even annual leave should be allocated due to seniority, what a crock!

Driver74 · Post by **Driver74** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:30

What has age got to do with it seniority is length of service which treats everyone the same anyone near the top has done their time at the bottom same as you

arnold cheshire · Post by **arnold cheshire** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:31

No you could have done more years and be younger

The Postman · Post by **The Postman** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:37

Age has nothing to do with it. So your saying in twenty years time the person who’s just walked in the door should get the job before you because he’s fitter/faster/has a better memory? The only thing that shouldn’t be allocated based on seniority is holidays.

The Postman · Post by **The Postman** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:37

Age has nothing to do with it. So your saying in twenty years time the person who’s just walked in the door should get the job before you because he’s fitter/faster/has a better memory? The only thing that shouldn’t be allocated based on seniority is holidays.

miles_peters · Post by **miles_peters** » 20 Oct 2018, 21:54

Dingo99 wrote:In my office we keep having talk of a possible resign. Now this worries me as I am a duty holder on a okay duty but the fact is I am knowledgable about who is who, where I can get rid of packets etc. Anyway I have been with RM since DEC 2009, but my seniority only runs from I think late 2013 since I was shafted constantly being on rolling contracts with Angard. Anyway I don't see why I should get put on a shi* duty just cause most of my colleagues have been in the job longer. I only became a duty holder by the skin of my teeth as my part time colleague had slightly less seniority than me. Why not go by merit? I have been doing this duty on and off and now continuously for years and can reel off everyone's name practically on my duty, I wouldn't like to get put on the High ST for e.g just because my near retirement colleague has been in the job longer! It sucks and this same colleague thinks that even annual leave should be allocated due to seniority, what a crock!

put the shoe on the other foot

Postie45 · Post by **Postie45** » 20 Oct 2018, 23:22

Dingo99 wrote: Anyway I don't see why I should get put on a shi* duty just cause most of my colleagues have been in the job longer.

Then who should have to do the "sh*t duty" ?
By the way, dont you think the people who have been in the job longer havent been through the sh*t ?
Its kinda nice IMO to have some `easier` duties as a carrot to reward those who stay longer, who go through doing sh*t duties for years, who go through bad management to finally get into a position where they can choose the duty they want to do.
Note this doesnt exclude you, in 15-20 years time if you stick at it, wouldnt it be nice to enjoy the same perk ?

Spigot bearing · Post by **Spigot bearing** » 21 Oct 2018, 07:06

As in previous posts... Get over it.

walkthewalk · Post by **walkthewalk** » 21 Oct 2018, 08:41

the answer to the question regarding going on a worse duty is “just work to your time”

maisymoo04 · Post by **maisymoo04** » 21 Oct 2018, 09:17

pick ye dummy up out the pram aswell

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 21 Oct 2018, 09:50

Seniority is CWU policy and I don't ever see them changing that. In our DO we still use seniority to allocate AL albeit that we alternate from lowest to highest seniority. Resigns always cause a tremendous amount of upset as posties don't generally like to be moved around and 'recipients' enjoy having the same postie deliver to them all the time. A possible change to resigns could be to exempt walks from resigns if a postie was happy to stay on a walk after it had been altered. Those posties who really support the seniority system would not advocate that change though.

antcpfc · Post by **antcpfc** » 21 Oct 2018, 09:52

Dingo99 wrote:In my office we keep having talk of a possible resign. Now this worries me as I am a duty holder on a okay duty but the fact is I am knowledgable about who is who, where I can get rid of packets etc. Anyway I have been with RM since DEC 2009, but my seniority only runs from I think late 2013 since I was shafted constantly being on rolling contracts with Angard. Anyway I don't see why I should get put on a shi* duty just cause most of my colleagues have been in the job longer. I only became a duty holder by the skin of my teeth as my part time colleague had slightly less seniority than me. Why not go by merit? I have been doing this duty on and off and now continuously for years and can reel off everyone's name practically on my duty, I wouldn't like to get put on the High ST for e.g just because my near retirement colleague has been in the job longer! It sucks and this same colleague thinks that even annual leave should be allocated due to seniority, what a crock!

Good idea let's let the manager give all the good duties to his mates.

rehabron · Post by **rehabron** » 21 Oct 2018, 10:57

Dingo99 wrote:In my office we keep having talk of a possible resign. Now this worries me as I am a duty holder on a okay duty but the fact is I am knowledgable about who is who, where I can get rid of packets etc. Anyway I have been with RM since DEC 2009, but my seniority only runs from I think late 2013 since I was shafted constantly being on rolling contracts with Angard. Anyway I don't see why I should get put on a shi* duty just cause most of my colleagues have been in the job longer. I only became a duty holder by the skin of my teeth as my part time colleague had slightly less seniority than me. Why not go by merit? I have been doing this duty on and off and now continuously for years and can reel off everyone's name practically on my duty, I wouldn't like to get put on the High ST for e.g just because my near retirement colleague has been in the job longer! It sucks and this same colleague thinks that even annual leave should be allocated due to seniority, what a crock!

Seniority is a recognition of your length of service to the business.
In the resign if your duty is not effected by change then you have the choice of retaining your duty or volunteer to put your duty into the resign pot that will be your decision.

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 21 Oct 2018, 11:32

Why not go by merit?

Why not go on looks?

Dorset Plodder · Post by **Dorset Plodder** » 21 Oct 2018, 11:51

You've opened a can of worms here D99. I can appreciate how unfair the Seniority system appears to many posties who may not have a lot of Seniority. Especially how this compnay has changed over the last decade. I believe that The Very Senior Posties had a lot easier job than nowadays.... One bag of mail, enough time to "Ghost" a complete extra duty and still finish early etc...... But the pay was a lot worse.

However The Seniority System is the best choice of a bad bunch. A few alternatives have been mentioned, many tongue in cheek, but ANYTHING that relies on a DOMs Common Sense, or Management Skills, is a big NO NO!

I acknowledge that a lot of Reserves have a higher level of knowledge, across the DO, and I'd support a pay structure where they were paid more for covering most of the duties in the DO. I've always thought that unfair. With the present system you'll often find a lot of the Very Senior Posties have never done another duty for the last 15 years or so.

To the extent that when they're on IPS they're often throwing off to duties that have been changed several times.

I would never support Annual Leave being done on Seniority.

I can see the appeal to the Most Senior Posties but it's blatantly unfair to let the same people get the 1st pick EVERY year.

We operate a system of several Groups, where you move up the list to the Top....... and then drop down to the bottom for the next years pick. It's not perfect, and I can't believe that a Modern 21st century Business can't operate a better system, but it is fair.