Angard Recruitment, Haven't received confirmation email

[ang_3853]

It’s pretty ironic considering that ANGARD are 100> owned by RM.

Angard (powered by Reed Rmoyment systems) can huff and puff all they like but, at the end of the day, will do what they are told by RM.

It’s all ‘smoke and mirrirs’ To placate CWU. RM can claim that, legally, they don’t employ casual, zero-hours contract staff. UT they win a gift which dies and which only supplies such staff to its owner!

Indeed, Angard has 1 share worth £1, owned by RM; & it's directors are the same as those at RM.

It has no office, it's all a fabrication & is just Reedglobal & Angard by name.

If managers want certain members in, they will; there may be a 1-2 week lull of "clamping down" but it's soon forgotten about if it were the case.

Worked there for 3 years, do mon-fri. If I weren't there, they wouldn't fill it with unexperience angard they'd just fill it with overtime.

Moaning to angard won't do anything, they're inconsistent; you just have to put your time in over the years.

[NW11851]

Sorry about the typos

[paulus103]

I think in my mail centre there are about 8 Angard staff who work full time and some work in excess of normal hours - 1 girl I know does 60 hours
They do long shifts outside of normal rota times e.g. might go from 6am to 6pm
They do take shifts from Angard but the vast majority of hours are via managers

Speaking to a few people there are some who get their shifts booked at the start of each week and these shifts are honoured - this I must admit really does annoy me.
The 8 staff doing loads of hours are to be fair very good workers and the younger ones can outwork anybody in the building - they also know their jobs better than most RM workers.

The problem I see is that Angard continues to recruit all the time and several Angard staff are poor but Angard doesn't really encourage the good ones to stay by offering enough shifts.
Also as Angard chose people seemingly mostly at random for shifts - on bad days the people selected are a poor bunch and it really damages centre performance so managers try to cover themselves by getting decent workers in as insurance by contacting them directly.

With "It’s all ‘smoke and mirrors’ To placate CWU." - absolutely spot on. The times Angard staff have been taken on are when the Union complains - I chatted with a former union rep last week.

[Failureisnotanoption]

That’s not on really and have seen it to a certain level at my MC . If people are that good why not just employ them on RM contracts when all said and done causals are supposed to be cover for lack of mail staff on hols or sick leave. .not doing 60 hour weeks as you have pointed out. At my MC if casuals were gettting them sort of hours over mail staff it wouldn’t go down well . Exceptable at Christmas but not all the time.

[paulus103]

Yes not sure it is widely known by the RM staff and I understand the overtime by RM regularly isn't being filled on some shifts - So there are gaps
I also think the new shifts 2am to 6am are not popular with Angard staff and again creates more gaps

RM do want shift patterns to change in my MC and I'm led to understand this will come in during Sept at my MC - I'm guessing this is to do with changes in tracked processing
So again I'm guessing there will be a new staff intake at some point later in the year

[NW11851]

I’ve been advised ‘informally’that, in the very near future, RM will be seeking to hire some of the Angard staff at the MC where I work.

None have been taken on for 5 years and the numbers of RM staff have dropped considerably due to ‘natural’ wastage.

I look forward, with interest as to whether it happens, the criteria for hiring etc.