Advice Please

[thecoffeehouse204]

Might have left it a bit late to get answers now but at least we'll know for future.

When the rota's for the week went up friday hubby was told he was getting back his walk that had been lapsed at the start of the summer. So all weekend he's been relieved knowing he'd be on a familiar walk and we'd know his days off in advance (he's been spare man for most of the summer so we've not been finding out his days off till the rota's go up)

Turns up for work this morning to be told the walk is still going to be lapsed as one of the other blokes wife went into labour last night so hubby needed to cover his walk, he didn't have a problem with this as obviously these things can't be helped.

The problem we've got is that no one seemed to be able to tell hubby what his day off is actually going to be this week or what he's going to be on tomorrow. His worry is that he might turn in and be told that it's the scheduled day off for the walk he's covering. Where will he stand on this as by the time he's got up and gone in it's seems a waste of his day off (and lie in) and if this happens in future is he within his rights to refuse the day off as he hasn't been given enough notice or does he just have to take it as is and come home again?

Like i said it's late so i doubt i'll get any answers in time for tomorrow but we'd really like to know where he stands in future.

[el_cartero]

Lapsing sucks i done it for my first time last week!

Nothing liek doing half a walk then starting ur walk at the usual time you would be finishing it!!1

Dont think theres much he can do ? sound slike the manager is to lazy to try and figure out his day off.

Or hes going to try make him work his day off craftaly!

I guess he will just need to ask again tomorrow and make it clear he wants his day off?

sorry im not much help .

[dave7634]

Bang a Grievance in. How the hell can anyone expect your hubby to have a life, book for drs, dentists or any other appointment when they're treating him unfairly like this. You should know 2 WEEKS IN ADVANCE what you're on. Flexibility isn't not knowing what you'll be doing one day to the next. Their words not ours.

[coxie]

they need to tell him his day off if he asks, if he turns up tomorrow and they say its his day off then he should refuse and stay at work and tell them he wants another day off and to be told the day before this time. If he gets through to friday with no mention of his day off then happy days he can say on friday "oh by the way i havent had a day off yet so i guess saturday will have to be my day off"

Dont let managers treat you like your nothing and dont have any rights, if you ask for your day off then they should tell you its not his fault if they cant its theirs and they will threaten this and that but they cant do nothing in threat of his job if he stands his ground and gets the unions backing. Ive seen it happen time and time again.

At my office they put a list of dutys up for reserves to cover and 1 was mine and i see they put saturday as the day off when in face it was wednesday, so come wednesday they lad covering me came in and they said we made a mistake go home, he refused saying he had got up and gone to work it was their mistake and he will do another walk but he is not going home and is taking his day off as saturday. They had to back down and he got his saturday off.

Moral of this story is if you let managers take the piss they will, if you dont they wont like it but they cant to shlt about it.

[krussel]

I think the best thing to do is as soon as he know which duty he will be covering is to ask when his rest day will be in advance. I can see a problem arising if his placed on a rolling rest week duty but moved somewhere else before its his turn to be off. In our office there is a rota on the wall showing each duty and its day/week off, could he get a copy of that to bring home ?

Lastly is he in the Union as our reserves work out their rest days with the help of our rep who they often phone up out of hours to check when they are off.

[bogstandard]

As your hubby is the holder of a duty then that duty has a day off within it (mon/tue) that your hubby accepted was the day off when he signed for it , personally when signing for a duty he has signed for a set of attendance times and these include his day off, a day when he was not due to be in attendance. The fact that they are lapsing his duty is a mute point when it comes to his day off. If it was me and i signed for a duty that has a tuesday off (e.g.) then i will continue to have tuesadys off. The person/duty covering my tuesday off will now need to cover the duty i'm on, as my duty is being lapsed (i'm going to assume mon-sat) and therefore does not need covering so the person covering my duty on a tuesday will now not be occupied on a tuesday.
If it was me... and i appreciate that it's not, i would not be asking for what's already mine, i'd be going in there and telling them.

Q. is everyone else being treated like this or is it just those who's duties are being lapsed.
If everyone is being treated like this then tough, however,
if it's the latter there would be a case for favouritism (thats my choice and not discrimination). Your hubby just wants to be treated like everyone else, no better no worse. So unless they are going to start informing everyone when their day off will be your hubby should let them know he will be working the times he signed for.

[thecoffeehouse204]

Thanks for all the replys. He hasn't turned up back at home so i presume they've found something for him to do.

dave7634 - You mention that he should have two weeks notice of days off - is this set down in writing anywhere or just a supposed courtesy on behalf of the managers. Since he started working for Royal mail in July 07 we have very rarely known his days off that far in advance. It's normally left till the friday when the rota's go up, which makes planning things a nightmare but we just thought that was the way it's done.

To give you a bit of background, since he started there he's mainly been reserve. He did 6 months last year covering for a chap who was off sick so that meant a regular rolling day off, when the chap came back it was on reduced duty of one week on, one week off so hubby was guaranteed his week off cover. The other weeks he was just holiday cover so his day off would never be revealed till the friday before. Fast forward to April when a list went up of walks needing a permanent postie, he put his name down for a walk close to home and got it which was great as we could finally plan things in advance as we knew his days off. Come June though he gets told the walk is being lapsed for summer absorbtion so it was back to one week on, one week off to cover the walk he used to do and then pot luck what he got the other weeks, he was told at the time this was just till September but surprise surprise that came and went and when he asked the manager he got told they didn't know when and if he'd be back on it.

Then come last friday he checks the wall to see he's back on it for this week, non of the managers could tell him if it was permanent or not. This threw out our plans a bit as next week was due to be his cover week with guranteed thursday off, so we had made plans to go to liverpool for the day, now this is up in the air as if he's back on his 'proper' duty his day off would be friday (i work fridays). So we quickly changed our plans to go this thursday as that was supposed to be this weeks day off.

The final sting in the tail was when he went in yesterday to be told he had to cover another walk so his regular duty would be lapsed for the day. So at the minute he doesn't have a clue when his day off for this week or next week is.

Hope that all makes sense - just thought it might help to give a fuller picture of the problem.

bogstandard - as far as i know he is the only one on reserve, most of the lads have a regular duty or are regular cover for other walks days off so they all know in advance when they are off.

[coxie]

the 2 week thing is just curtosy its not set in stone for every office, although most offices put a list of dutys up for the following week usually to the back end of the previous week so people who dont have their own dutys can make plans and see what their day off will be. If they havent told your husband what his day off is this week yet just tell him to do as i said keep going into work and asking them and if he turns up 1 morning and it is his day off but he hasnt been told tell him to refuse to go home as it is NOT his fault the managment team have let him down. Hopefully they will find him something to do each day and then he can just have saturday as his day off and you 2 can enjoy the weekend.

Dont worry coffee we have all been there when we were new but in time your husband will be able to get his own permanent duty and then you will be able to plan your days off months in advance.

Another thing is ask him if the walk he is doing this week has a floater to cover rest days, maybe the floater could tell him what his day off will be.

[johnnyp]

thecoffeehouse204 what has happened to the duty your husband signed for?
I believe he should now be on that duty as summer lapsing has now finished.
Now what should be happening with reserves is yes they cover A/L and S/L so they should then pick up the day off for that week on that duty.So when hubby signs to pick up the high st walk for next week and the day off is on Thursday that is what he gets.At our place and yours as well,managers allocate duties the week before(normally do it on a Thursday)in seniority so all the reserves know what there on that week.There is NO excuse for the managers not knowing what day off hubby has as all walks and rest day cover duties have a fixed or rotational rest day.
I must say it sounds to me like hes being messed about and needs to have a word with his local rep who then needs to have a word with the managers.

[carpathia_kuja]

I'm fed up with lapsing its still going on at my office, it should have ended when the summer did.
There was a time when my gaffa tried doing that to me telling me all week I would find out what turn I was on when I went in on the day, I just told him how uncomfortable it made me and he has not tried it for a year and a half and counting lol

[DirtyHarry]

I'm fed up with lapsing its still going on at my office, it should have ended when the summer did.
There was a time when my gaffa tried doing that to me telling me all week I would find out what turn I was on when I went in on the day, I just told him how uncomfortable it made me and he has not tried it for a year and a half and counting lol

I take my hat off to you, sir.......There's no way on God's green earth that I could manage to do any part of a lapsed duty during winter, and complete my own duty within my 7.5 hr day.

[POSTMAN]

First of all where is the rep in all this???

The fact is,your hubby's walk was lapsed in the summer and now in the winter,in fact it doesn't matter when his walked is lapsed he can still have his normal rest days.

What I mean is,when he was thrown off his walk he could of demanded that he keeps his normal rest day rota,the manager can't do anything about it.
It's up to the manager to sort out rest days when your hubby is off.

Regular and rest day posties know when they are off till time ends so f***ing them about is a no no.You are on a rota end off!!

They are taking the piss.

[Postie558]

What I don't understand here is that assuming he has signed for his duty, why is it being lapsed? I thought lapsing was supposed to be for holiday, sick, or vacant duties. It certainly is in my office most of the time. I say most of the time, because there has been the odd exception. On the Friday between the Thursday Mail Centres and Saturday Delivery strikes, my driving job was lapsed on my day off, because it was exceptionally light. It was split between the other three drivers and the floater was put on a walk.

Quite frankly, if I arrived one morning to be told my job was being lapsed, I'd kick up a stink. I signed for my duty, therefore that is what I expect to do. Perhaps we're lucky in our office?

[coxie]

to be honest it sounds to me like your husband needs to stand up for himself a bit more, if they said they was lapsing my duty so i had to be spare i would laugh in their face, like hell would i let them laps my duty, id tell them they are the managers and if it means they have to laps a different walk each week depeding on which 1s need covering then they would have to work it out cos thats what they are paid to do. If on the off chance i did ever agree to letting them use my duty I would demand another duty in place which I will be on till I get mine back.

[thecoffeehouse204]

Thanks for all the replies.

He ended up covering the same walk as yesterday as the normal bloke is going to be off the rest of the week, so that's what he's doing all this week with Thursday off. Still no-one could tell him what he'll be doing next week though so it's still all in the dark.

When he signed for the regular duty in April it was never mentioned that it was just till summer but when June came round and it was decided the walk would be absorbed they swore blind he had been told it was only temporary but did promise he would get back on it after the summer. Obviously by the fact that one member of staff taking time off for a new baby meant that the round had to be lapsed again shows that they must be short of staff but it's just a false economy as because some of the lads are expected to take out a bit of the lapsed duty they're all ending up leaving bags in on their regular duty as there isn't the time to do everything.

He's never kicked up a fuss about not knowing the days off as we thought maybe it was normal practice, hubby's not had very good luck with jobs in the past so it's easier to keep quiet than risk losing the job over it.