RMCtv : Absence - your questions answered plus an important detailed Q&A attachment

[POSTMAN]

Operations development director Ricky McAulay meets postwoman Beatrice Adindu to hear her feedback on proposed changes to our absence policy as part of our ‘The change we need’ proposal.

In a changing market, we need to protect the business and colleagues’ jobs. Ricky discusses the importance of absence changes with Alistair Wood, director of workforce performance & HR policy.

Leaflet: Improving how we manage absence : https://www.myroyalmail.com/sites/defau ... bsence.pdf

For personalised responses to the questions posted on the original thread promoting this topic. : https://www.myroyalmail.com/sites/defau ... 202022.pdf

Haven't watched the video yet-will report back as per with the best bits.

A4 Leaflet3_Absence.pdf

Absence Q&A_15 August 2022.pdf

[chickenwittle]

They have no shame in openly trying to worsen our working conditions, they are making the unions job to rally the troops very easy .

[paulj3001]

The text on the picture says SSP for first week of 2nd absence on the questions it says for first 3 days of 2nd absence. The clowns can’t even get their own ideas to make sense

[Pharox]

You're right does not make a lot of sense. I read it as:-

1). First time sick in any 12 month period, I will receive full pay, which will continue as long as my sickness is continuous.
2). Full pay for the first sickness in any 12 month period, but SSP if I go sick again in that 12 month period, no matter if I'm off with norovirus or a heart attack.

Forgot to add:
I don’t fully understand the ill health info. Under this latest and greatest proposal, a postie would lose a lot of money due to their illness. If I understand what they are saying, for example, if I suffer from arthritis, if I was off for say 6 months, then considered for IHR, I would hardly get anything, as I would lose 1 week for each week of illness. 6 months is 24w, 34w – 26w = 8 weeks of pay, plus holidays owing. Surely that is not, right?

[mw7485]

This just means you get more people with genuine sickness working with and subsequent potential increase in injuries, or cross infection. Another brilliantly thought out policy

[denhamhoop]

They quote 3 times the national sickness rate for our staff but how many other jobs these days actually a) travel to work bit easier battling cold and feeling ill when sitting in your living room with a nice cup of cocoa b) Work 5 out of 6 days with many choosing to work all 6 days so only 1 day a week to rest and recover c) Are out in the freezing cold/rain and out in the baking sun and all weather in between d) Walk 12 to 15 miles a day carrying mail e) Have to get up for work and travel to work whilst most are still in nice and wrapped up under their duvet
Now none of these individually are enough drain your energy and vigour for the job but added to the drip drip water torture style of management asking for a little bit more from most each and every day whilst ignoring the shortage of staff seeps into most Posties Souls over time

[Jonno13]

The reply to point 3 say all you need to know why the policy is changing.

Sickness is currently costing RM £250m a year which equates simply to Profit before employees health.

[1617mel]

He keeps referring to company policy, when a difficult choice is to make , be very afraid of this phrase, "company policy" between the lines e are not getting the full truth of what should be told, STRIKE to keep our terms and conditions, they do want to get as close to the gig economy as they can...........

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

What date range is comparing our sick absence amount to others?

During the Covid pandemic, when many businesses were furloughing employees or they were working from home (like you Simon), while us OPGs were mingling with often poorly implemented h&s protocols indoors and the public on delivery?

Most of the past ~2.5 years has been about fire fighting the upsurge in online shopping and delivering test kits, making millions that justified your obscene board bonuses, with very little real regard for keeping the coalface workforce safe.

It's no shock whatsoever that when Covid was brought in to a depot, it spread like wildfire every time, given OPGs were often clambering all over each other to sort mail and get their daily Xmas-like workload prepped. Hence massive Covid positive absenses.

Not to mention the other Covid related lottery of how individuals reacted to the vaccine jabs. Some were hit hard, moreso than having Covid before the vaccines were available.

[Clappedoutpostie]

They quote 3 times the national sickness rate for our staff

And it is no doubt based on the period where we were all crammed in delivery offices/mail centres helping to keep this country running. How many people sat at home getting furlough would have bothered reporting sickness/absence to their boss, there would have been no point them doing so as they are already at home getting paid to stay in.

[matthew68]

Of course it’s 3 times the national average, unlike a lot of other jobs we simply can’t do it with even minor strain on our feet knees or ankles. He needs to wake up to the reality of this job and pay full pay at current rates for injuries clearly down to this job and the repetitive strain on our joints, it’s ok if he’s injured his knees or feet he can just sit at home on his laptop we can’t!

[General Mannerheim]

I love this bit ... We haven’t
discussed what adjustments we might
need to make to our proposals for such
colleagues. However, we would make
adjustments where it is reasonable and
right to do so. We will keep you
updated as our talks on these
proposals progress. We want to
ensure that we continue to support
colleagues covered by the Equality Act
in the right way

So what this really means is we will continue to s**t on people covered under the Equality Act and hope you just f**k off, we will even fast track you out the business on the premise of if you go early you will get more dosh.
See you in court (again) Knobheads, where I hope to wipe the floor with your shitty lawyers(again) last time it cost you a fortune, i look forward to reading how much your lawyers charge for a 20 minute phone call to the muppet managers, because I can tell you now it's not `value` for money.

[mjd24]

The reply to point 3 say all you need to know why the policy is changing.

Sickness is currently costing RM £250m a year which equates simply to Profit before employees health.

Theyve got their eyes on that £250mill, more for their trough