17/11/21 Mount Pleasant Bulletin

[jimallen]

Hi, find below the Mount Pleasant bulletin of 17 November. Comments welcome - we do read them :)

NO LIFE JACKETS FOR THEM
It isn't yet Black Friday, we're not that close to
Xmas, and things are already picking up. We
feel the rising tide of packets - and we know we
won't be surfing it... But unlike management, at
least we know how to tread water!

FEELING XMAS IN OUR BONES
But those of us working in Large Tracked
Packets on nights, can't keep processing greater
and greater numbers of heavier parcels. We're
not quite sure whether this is linked to an
announcement made some time back that the
weight limit would go up. But we never agreed
to it.

MP ISN'T PLATFORM 9¾
Do managers think the building and machines
over here will be maintained by magic? We've
noticed the RM-PFS engineers leaving one-byone
and not being replaced. They may have
taken away some machines, but they've taken
away more engineers in proportion... Typical
management short-sighted stupidity.
PS: Do they really think taking on one sole appie
will be enough?

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
What's going on with the Saturday shift breaks?
When some of us accepted this anti-social shift,
we counted on 2-full hours of break which we
could take at the end of the shift. Now
managers say they want to cut this to 50
minutes. No way.

WHAT-NEXT?
Yup, Mr. Wit-less or What-less (or Whateverless)
has made a mess of Lates in PSA, and
tells us we shouldn't complain... And why?
Because us part-timers got a (very slight) pay
increase for the shorter working week, and
should be grateful! But with the number of
duties he wants us to do, we should be paid
three times the rate!

THOUGHTLESS
You'd think at a time like this, bosses in all
workplaces would have sorted out arrangements
for next of kin. But not here. The RM-PFS
Elephant has no thoughts for the present nor
memories for the past. So nothing was arranged
in the event of a tragedy amongst us. It's only
this last week we've been given next of kin forms
to fill in.

DIVISIVE
There's another thing that annoys us in RM-PFS,
and that is the Elephant's divisive management
tactics. Of course all managers try to divide and
rule us, but he rubs it in over petty issues,
making sure we know who's in favour, and who
isn't.

ETC... ETC... ETC... ETC...
Not bad, the break we're having on letters since
King Etcetera climbed up the promotion ladder.
We hope he keeps climbing until he's
disappeared out of sight! Although when a
manager goes, another unusually appears in
his/her place...

DON'T KNOW IF IT'S COMING OR GOING...
As the workload increases, so does the degree
of managers' disorganisation! Some of the yorks
we have to sort include large and small, Tracked
and non-Tracked, Special Devils (oops)
Deliveries, etc., all together, causing chaos. We
don't feel like we're sorting items for delivery, but
constantly unclogging a blockage...

NOT ON US
We see that a RM top manager has been
complaining that "overall quality performance" is
"not where we need it to be"… Apparently just
82% of First Class mail was delivered on time
between July and September, i.e. over 10%
below their target.
Well they made the cuts. The system wasn't
broke, but they "fixed" it (with union leaders'
help)... So we're surprised their figures aren't
even worse!

TRYING TO BE SANTA KHAN?
At least there's some good news. We hear the
Mayor is making a decision soon on reducing
congestion charge hours from 07:00-22:00 to
07:00-18:00 weekdays and 12:00-18:00 at
weekends (and Bank Holidays); what's more
there'd be no charge between Xmas and New
Year.
But the thing is we should never have had to
pay any charges for coming to work as key
workers in the first place.

[SpacePhoenix]

FEELING XMAS IN OUR BONES
But those of us working in Large Tracked
Packets on nights, can't keep processing greater
and greater numbers of heavier parcels. We're
not quite sure whether this is linked to an
announcement made some time back that the
weight limit would go up. But we never agreed
to it.

October 2018 is when the weight limit went up to 30Kg

MP ISN'T PLATFORM 9¾
Do managers think the building and machines
over here will be maintained by magic? We've
noticed the RM-PFS engineers leaving one-byone
and not being replaced. They may have
taken away some machines, but they've taken
away more engineers in proportion... Typical
management short-sighted stupidity.
PS: Do they really think taking on one sole appie
will be enough?

The only time that we have 2 engineers on duty at a time is during Xmas pressure. The rest of the year it's just 1 per shift

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
What's going on with the Saturday shift breaks?
When some of us accepted this anti-social shift,
we counted on 2-full hours of break which we
could take at the end of the shift. Now
managers say they want to cut this to 50
minutes. No way.

Yes way. Count yourselves lucky that you've gotten away with having 2hr total of breaks in a shift:

For reference...

Attendance length............total breaks..... probable/possible pattern

Less than 2 hours 30 minutes none (a 10 min grace break should be provided if work permits)
2 hours 30 to 3 hours................10 mins.................. 10
3 hours 1 to 3 hours 30..... .......15 mins....................15
3 hours 31 to 4 hours 59..... .......20 mins.................. 20
5 hours to 7 hours................... 30 mins...................30
7 hours 1 to 8 hours 59..... .......40 mins..............40 or 20 + 20
9 hours to 10 hours 59...............50 mins................30 + 20
11 hours to 12 hours 59..... .......60 mins............. 40 + 20 or 30 + 30
13 hours or longer..... ..............70 mins..................40 + 30

as you can see from that chart, no one is entitled to 2hrs worth of breaks. Also taking all of your breaks at the end of a shift is not allowed and is illegal. I'm guessing that you've not got the scan in/out machines installed yet. If you've been taking your 2hrs at the end and going home early, well that's going to end as if higher up see you going home 2hrs early everyday then their either going to put you down to part time hours (which will also cut your break entitlement) or add some more content to your duty

DON'T KNOW IF IT'S COMING OR GOING...
As the workload increases, so does the degree
of managers' disorganisation! Some of the yorks
we have to sort include large and small, Tracked
and non-Tracked, Special Devils (oops)
Deliveries, etc., all together, causing chaos. We
don't feel like we're sorting items for delivery, but
constantly unclogging a blockage...

Having Tracked and non-Tracked, small and large and the odd SD thrown in is the norm. EVERY MC is guilty of it. sometimes if I'm on large packets, most of the contents of some yorks will go into the sleeve that goes over to the small packets. if I'm on large Tracked, I'll get some yorks were well over half of it is normal packets. Also sometimes you can get loads of small Tracked on a large york.