Confused

[manc_daddy]

Do i have to make a claim my self or do the union do it automatically for me?

[Babble2412]

Think you have to do it yourself,
Mines been in 20 months now

[yellowbelly]

Do i have to make a claim my self or do the union do it automatically for me?

Depends - if you're happy with the CWU/RM agreement that's been voted in then you don't have to do anything, it should
all happen automatically......

If you think you're entitled to substantially more than what the agreement will give you then you'll have to go through
ACAS and Employment Tribunal process yourself. Depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it
and whether the financial rewards would justify that. You'd need to have all your facts and figures in place beforehand
as after all you'd be going through a legal process.

[Dexydog]

If you go to ACAS now you may only get 3 months backdated- you only have 3 months to claim from when you think any money was owed to you.
May be wrong on that but be careful.

[yellowbelly]

If you go to ACAS now you may only get 3 months backdated- you only have 3 months to claim from when you think any money was owed to you.
May be wrong on that but be careful.

Excellent point Dexy, another factor that demonstrates what a stich up RM have engineered through this 'agreement'
to ensure they pay out as little as possible.

[Dexydog]

If you go to ACAS now you may only get 3 months backdated- you only have 3 months to claim from when you think any money was owed to you.
May be wrong on that but be careful.

Excellent point Dexy, another factor that demonstrates what a stich up RM have engineered through this 'agreement'
to ensure they pay out as little as possible.

The point I was making is that you might actually get paid out more if you do nothing, as the agreement goes back 2 years, but if you don't already have a claim in with ACAS and subsequently put one in after having turned down RM's offer, you might end up with only 3 months or so.
As I say, I may well be wrong on this point, just something worth checking on with ACAS first. (although I have personally found them to be not that forthcoming with advice or recommendations).
It's a minefield for sure.

[Fiesta1996]

If you go to ACAS now you may only get 3 months backdated- you only have 3 months to claim from when you think any money was owed to you.
May be wrong on that but be careful.

Wouldn't that be at odd's with the going back 52 weeks to derive a referencing period to determine 'regular' overtime?

I can't believe if an employer was found to be paying you less than minimum wage for example, for year after year, you would only be able to claim for the most recent 3 months of underpayment.

While there is a degree of ambiguity as to what regular constitutes, how its phrased suggests that the spirit of being entitled to holiday pay reflective of total hours is now a statutory requirement on Employers, just as paying the minimum wage is.

Indeed, given that Royal Mail give basic holiday pay above the legal requirement (i think 30.5 days for new recruits compared to the 28 days legal minimum), It may be that they have also actually been paying below national minimum wage once holiday is considered for new recruits doing overtime on SSPR (ie, standard hourly rate 'overtime). Holiday pay is 12.07% of the hourly rate, but 13.17% for 30.5 days. At the basic pay rate of £10.01 for 2020, that means they are missing out on £1.32 worth of holiday pay every hour, taking the real rate of pay down to £8.69, or slightly below the legal minimum wage for 2020. I guess the backdated payrise in the Feb 2021 payslip makes this argument obsolete, but going back prior years (i don't know what the lowest pay rate for those years was) it may be that in failing to pay holiday pay, the overtime rate may have in reality been sub-minimum wage rate for those at the bottom.

Regardless, I think its just 3 months you have since the last occurrence of wrongdoing was incurred?

[Dexydog]

I'm not at all saying anything as fact, just that if you look on ACAS' website you need to make a claim within 3 months of any wrongdoing.
Whether they will then backdate is another question.
There has been talk of 2 years being the default position due to precedent being set already-again, who knows what a tribunal would say?
Personally I've been back at RM 5 years and done almost double my contracted hours for all of that time.
Do I go to tribunal and hope they go back all that time??
My gut feeling is a tribunal will look at the agreement reached and use that as a template- I'm not saying they will, or that would be fair, just my personal thoughts.
It really is a finger in wind job.

[yellowbelly]

It's all very complicated and for sure the end of the stick we're going to be given is not smelling of roses.......

[clashcityrocker]

Indeed, given that Royal Mail give basic holiday pay above the legal requirement (i think 30.5 days for new recruits compared to the 28 days legal minimum), It may be that they have also actually been paying below national minimum wage once holiday is considered for new recruits doing overtime on SSPR (ie, standard hourly rate 'overtime). Holiday pay is 12.07% of the hourly rate, but 13.17% for 30.5 days. At the basic pay rate of £10.01 for 2020, that means they are missing out on £1.32 worth of holiday pay every hour, taking the real rate of pay down to £8.69, or slightly below the legal minimum wage for 2020.

I have tried following the logic of your argument and have come to the conclusion there isn't any.
Royal Mail have not been paying below the national minimum wage.

[Dexydog]

For me there's 2 ways to look at it.
Either you are of the opinion that a bird in hand etc. and avoid all the hassle, so take the money now.(when it arrives, no-one even knows that yet).
Or you go to tribunal and try your luck- at the end of the day the lawyers and negotiators for RM aren't as stupid as the union ones obviously were- so they have stacked the cards in their favour going forward.
BUT- they probably know full well someone will do better at a tribunal if they can be bothered.