Part timers to be FORCED to work afternoons

[Grumpyoldmailman]

We all have to remember that in the current economic climate (many have lost their jobs and many more will probably lose their jobs once the furlough ends), we're all very easily replaceable

That's nonsense.
We're not any more "replaceable" than at any other time.
Royal Mail never has a shortage of candidates for posts, its problem is retention and the length of time and associated costs involved in recruitment and training.

The number of people on the dole is practically irrelevant whether it's 1 million or 3 million.

Our jobs are at risk but not through replacement, through reduction.

Absolutely. RM have always been oversubscribed with applicants. It’s the hard physical nature of the job and poor management that see the majority of them off in the first 12 months in our office.

[Sir Henry]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H2DS6o64vKA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[postieblueshirt]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H2DS6o64vKA

Ha ha very good

[bishopoflove]

TIME YOU LOOKED FOR ANOTHER JOB MATE, PERHAPS MI5 MIGHT TAKE YOU ON, YOUR THE SORT OF PERSON THAT CAUSES UNREST, YOUR FULL OF BULL SH-T.

[cpsteve]

You can ask you cant force, i have no doubt we will have later starts lots of changes need to be made to compete with the other delivery companies, the bottom line is we work by choice.

[SpacePhoenix]

You can ask you cant force, i have no doubt we will have later starts lots of changes need to be made to compete with the other delivery companies, the bottom line is we work by choice.

They can't directly force but what if they changed all duties enough to trigger a full resign with all duties going into the pot?

[Woody Guthrie]

You can ask you cant force, i have no doubt we will have later starts lots of changes need to be made to compete with the other delivery companies, the bottom line is we work by choice.

They can't directly force but what if they changed all duties enough to trigger a full resign with all duties going into the pot?

You still have the same problem with constructive dismissal, unfair treatment of part-timers and potential discrimination claims.

Changes to your contract like this have to be by agreement either individually or through collective bargaining.

[SpacePhoenix]

You can ask you cant force, i have no doubt we will have later starts lots of changes need to be made to compete with the other delivery companies, the bottom line is we work by choice.

They can't directly force but what if they changed all duties enough to trigger a full resign with all duties going into the pot?

You still have the same problem with constructive dismissal, unfair treatment of part-timers and potential discrimination claims.

Changes to your contract like this have to be by agreement either individually or through collective bargaining.

My gut feeling is that as more and more MCs get PSMs installed, final dispatches will get pushed back later, maybe even by 2-3 hours if RM decided to have each DO deliver their own LAT items (to have LAT items arrive with the final dispatches). Locally you don't get many 9am SDs, perhaps a dozen tops. What % of 9am SDs end up being 739'd where no one answers?

[Woody Guthrie]

What % of 9am SDs end up being 739'd where no one answers?

Very few, they're mostly legal documents, returned passports and stuff people actually need then and there.

At the end of the day any major changes in working hours or patterns would need to be agreed or phased in at a rate that would allow the business to use volunteers and new starts on more flexible contracts to resource the later shifts otherwise you're back down the rabbit hole of mass employment tribunals.

If you force someone to move to hours that they can't work that's effectively dismissing them, that's why they call it constructive dismissal. If it materially affects one group of people more than others like part-timers that's unfair treatment, if it affects more women than men due to childcare issues that's potentially discrimination.

It's a minefield that only a very stupid employer would step into.

[SpacePhoenix]

At the end of the day any major changes in working hours or patterns would need to be agreed or phased in at a rate that would allow the business to use volunteers and new starts on more flexible contracts to resource the later shifts otherwise you're back down the rabbit hole of mass employment tribunals.

If you force someone to move to hours that they can't work that's effectively dismissing them, that's why they call it constructive dismissal. If it materially affects one group of people more than others that's unfair treatment, if it affects more women than men due to childcare issues that's potentially discrimination.

It's a minefield that only a very stupid employer would step into.

There's no point in having delivery staff in early if the work isn't there. If the work takes longer to process in MCs then it'll get through to DOs later

[bitterpill]

The CWU or UCW as I once knew them don’t care about anything but themselves. Never have, never will.
They know the paymasters call and they’re like rats following the pied pier! You my friend are dispensable but their own needs have to be met, pensions etc and inflated salaries. Good luck with your quest to be heard, I fear it will all fall on deaf ears!

[Woody Guthrie]

There's no point in having delivery staff in early if the work isn't there. If the work takes longer to process in MCs then it'll get through to DOs later

Why would the work take longer to process at MCs?
Letter volumes are declining, large parcels and tracked will bypass the MC completely in most cases, most MCs with capacity will end up with at least one PSM, those without the capacity will probably close, the USO is likely to be watered down to some extent, there's nothing on the horizon that would suggest that it would suddenly take longer to process than mail.

Network and distribution is a far bigger driver for DO start times and we don't really know much of what shape that will take in the future.

Rather than push DO start times later what we'll probably end up with in the LAT offices is two separate operations, one starting around 6.30-7.00 and the other around 12.30-1.00. Smaller offices may start around 8.00 without the later shift but they won't on the whole want to move any later than that.

The idea of having every office doing LAT work would completely negate any potential savings from centralising the work. That's a non starter.

[SpacePhoenix]

Why would the work take longer to process at MCs?
Letter volumes are declining, large parcels and tracked will bypass the MC completely in most cases, most MCs with capacity will end up with at least one PSM, those without the capacity will probably close, the USO is likely to be watered down to some extent, there's nothing on the horizon that would suggest that it would suddenly take longer to process than mail.

You won't get all the large parcels and Tracked bypassing MCs as often they can be well and truly mixed in with the small packets. Any rejects from the PSMs will still have to be sorted manually (anyone at a MC that's got a PSM, what's the average % reject rate when inward mail is being run?). From another thread, once an item has been run through a PSM at a MC once, it can't be run through again.

Rather than push DO start times later what we'll probably end up with in the LAT offices is two separate operations, one starting around 6.30-7.00 and the other around 12.30-1.00. Smaller offices may start around 8.00 without the later shift but they won't on the whole want to move any later than that.

More likely 07:30-08:00 start time with our current dispatch times. It can only be a matter of time before RM push back dispatch times in MCs. They'd save quite a bit of money on shift allowances in MCs.

The idea of having every office doing LAT work would completely negate any potential savings from centralising the work. That's a non starter.

The LAT offices will no way have the capacity to handle all the Tracked. Probably around 4.5-5k per LAT office for areas covered by smaller MCs. Maybe 10-12k for larger areas. Given the large geographical areas covered by each LAT office, do you honestly believe that they'll have the capacity to handle all that?

[Woody Guthrie]

do you honestly believe that they'll have the capacity to handle all that?

What I honestly think is that your figures are way off the mark.
There are around 320 LAT offices out of just over 1000 offices.
That's on average each LAT servicing 3 offices.

A typical large office will receive anything between 2000 and 5000 Tracked per day outside of Christmas , a smaller office half that and an SPDO as little as 100-500 but most of those tracked will be small and continue through the existing network.

At most an LAT office is likely to be handling 1500 large tracked and maybe the same in large parcels on the late shift and even that could be some time down the line.

25 staff could handle that on the afternoon shift which in my office which would probably be about 15% of staff. Capacity isn't an issue.

[SpacePhoenix]

do you honestly believe that they'll have the capacity to handle all that?

What I honestly think is that your figures are way off the mark.
There are around 320 LAT offices out of just over 1000 offices.
That's on average each LAT servicing 3 offices.

A typical large office will receive anything between 2000 and 5000 Tracked per day outside of Christmas , a smaller office half that and an SPDO as little as 100-500 but most of those tracked will be small and continue through the existing network.

At most an LAT office is likely to be handling 1500 large tracked and maybe the same in large parcels on the late shift and even that could be some time down the line.

25 staff could handle that on the afternoon shift which in my office which would probably be about 15% of staff. Capacity isn't an issue.

Our LAT offices cover approx 6 DOs each. We probably get around 14k of Tracked on a busy day and if I had to guess, 5k of normal large on a busy day. That's going to average out about 6.3k per LAT office.

Only the very large Tracked get sorted as large, you're probably looking at a couple of yorks per DO on average. All our LAT comes through on the normal dispatches so gets dispatched on the normal dispatches. Anything after that and either the LAT offices send their own vans to collect it or it fails and just gets the next night with that night's non-LAT Tracked items

Tracked is only going to get busier as more shops move to online sales so it probably won't be too long before there's 10k per LAT office