Bullying and Harrassment

[Martin Walsh]

Any bullying and harrassment is unacceptable and needs to be stopped. The union is attempting to do this and have been meeting Royal Mail. The cases which have been submitted to the union suggest that bullying is thankfully still rare. All be it some members maybe scared to report.

The union recieved 583 Indivduals cases who responded to the letter and e bulletin which was sent out, plus a further 200 other cases which were either direct emails or phone calls to Bob's department. in additon we know some cases of bullying get resolved with the assistance of area reps and Divisonal reps.

Out of the 583 cases which responded this is how it was broken down in terms of divisons

North Wesr / North Wales 126 cases
South Central 84 cases
North East 82 cases
Midlands 77
South West South Wales 54 cases
Anglia 47
Scotland 36
Northern Ireland 23
South East 23
London 16


In terms of Branch's where the most cases have been reported they are :

1 South East Number 5. 30 cases
2. North Lancs Cumbria 27 cases
3. Doncaster. 26 cases
4. North Wesr Central 25 cases
5. Shropshire and Mid Wales 22 cases
6. Derbyshire 20 cases
7. Western Counties 20 cases
8. Greater Manchester 19 cases
9. Harrow and DIST 19 cases
10. Nottingham 18 cases
11. Scotland no 2 17 cases
12. South Central 15 cases
13 Northern Ireland West 14 cases
14. South Yorkshire 13
15. Lecistershire 11 cases
16. Postmouth and DIST 11 cases
17 Mersyside 10 cases
18. Northern Ireland Combined 10 cases
19 Bradford and DIST 10 cases
20 Midland number 7 , Plymouth and East Cornwall and Leeds all with 9 cases.


83% of those who said they were being bullied were from offices who have had a revison.

79.5% were duty holders
11.2% were floaters
9.3% were reserves

78% were full time
22% were part time

71% had been asked to work over their time

62% had been denied payment for working overtime

63% had been threatened with displine if they did not complete their delivery after informing the manager that they would not complete it within their duty time.

other comments made include

Performance threats
Revison problems
Management style
Withholding payment
Prep rate testing
Sick leave
No meal relief
Denying them from coming in early


The union intends to resolve the issue of bullying and the link to revisons and disasters is obvious.

No other body will resolve this and If you choose not to support the fight against bullying then you will be giving Royal Mail the green light to spread bullying.

At the end of the day , you do have a choice.

[ashadd]

So grow a pair and stand up to the bastards...I did and won many cases.....

[Dee Plish]

Interesting stats Dingo - thanks for sharing them. The number of cases reported / dealt with seems very high in my opinion, not "thankfully still rare" . One wonders how many similar issues have also been dealt with via the greivance procedure? I could name 2 stonewall cases from my office dealt with (successfully it must be said) that way.

One also wonders what is done by Royal Mail to the managers guilty of B & H once the case against them is proven. In my experience, nothing. One manager seems to get at least one case against him whichever office in the area he works at and carries on regardless.

The Union WILL get the support of the membership to fight this one all the way if neccesary. It is sad that R M were allowed by the same Union to backslide away from resolving the issue during the 2009 strikes. The actions of Royal Mail (not the soft soap words) prove that the company condones managerial bullying and harrassment. That is beyond doubt.

The Union needs to go public on this.

[spoodoo]

How the. H ell can this go on and it's not went public?

[hantsman]

I'm afraid its not rare, this has been going on since 2006 at least.

[fishtank]

The number of cases reported / dealt with seems very high in my opinion, not "thankfully still rare" .

It's not rare,it's obvious from the statistics it's widespread across a lot of areas and on the increase.
The survey can only be seen in respect of members who were aware of the survey and more importantly members willing to take a leap of faith and identify themselves.
Believe it or not one of the most common feelings after being bullied is shame and that doesn't make you want to advertise that bullying.

Any attempt to downplay the significance will be a disastrous miscalculation by the union.
Almost every office in the country has witnessed intimidation of some kind by management at some point and the members will see any backsliding as a betrayal of one of the most important issues in delivery if not the whole business.

[Dee Plish]

[hatetheboss]

The trouble is we are still talking about it.

Lets have a vote for strike action, that way the union will be listening to us.

[Martin Walsh]

I was in now way playing down the issue of bullying , however I do think overplaying it is danagous as well. What we know is that the offices where this is happening which I won't reveal is isolated. Branch's have over a thousand members in some cases and some over 3000.

Now there will be a lot of members who are scared to do anything and some who may not know what the union is trying to do.

Bullying is unacceptable whether it is one office or every office and needs to be stopped. There is a pattern which I won't reveal at this point. But you can see that those with the worst revisons seems to have more cases.

[music4essex]

My case was downgraded to grievence , even though this was put in over 6 weeks agao and further calls made to IR sheffield still nothing has been done about it, I will give it another week and will chase it up

In the end after 8 weeks off work, I came back this week but had to change from doing a delivery, to a driver because the B/H from my manager got too much .

Now in a little talk to the postpersons on IPs yesterday he said that after 4 weeks these people will be tested now if that is not a way of B/H I dont know what is,

BTW I did get in touch with Bob Gibson office about my situation

Essex mum

[wf]

I sincerely hope this time it is sorted for once and for all.
There hasn't been anyone man enough to sort it before in cwu
So why should we believe it this time
Over two years since revisions started and we are only getting round to this now
The cwu really should hang there heads in shame
I've watched people getting sick over all this,and losing their jobs
This better be good this time ,as if its not I would really have to question what we are paying dues for

[fishtank]

however I do think overplaying it is dangerous as well.

Why?

[lovehunter]

I think u will find the union are telling people not to put B+H charges in....... Otherwise it would be through the roof.... They are telling opgs that Royal Mail will turn it round on them if they do..... Will any body second me on this????

[wf]

I think u will find the union are telling people not to put B+H charges in....... Otherwise it would be through the roof.... They are telling opgs that Royal Mail will turn it round on them if they do..... Will any body second me on this????

I will second you .half the time you are
Are made to feel that you are the problem.
I would say b and h forms should be made more
Widely available and maybe then we will get
A true figure !

[Lincox]

however I do think overplaying it is dangerous as well.

Why?

Yes, why? How can you overplay something that is so despicable and causing some members to feel suicidal. Bob Gibson brought these cases up with Royal Mail and has admitted that senior management have downplayed the seriousness of what is going on. It is a fundamental right of every member of Royal Mail staff that they can carry out their duties in an atmosphere which is non confrontational and that their health and safety is not compromised by over zealous management tactics. With that in mind Bob Gibson should have called an extra ordinary meeting of the PEC to discuss and make an immediate announcement to the membership of how the CWU intend progressing this most serious of situations in order to achieve an immediate resolution. All we have had is LTB stating that he will be discussing this again with Royal Mail and hopes to have a joint statement issued. Sorry Dingo, just not good enough any more. It is time you and members of the PEC give this matter the attention it deserves as all of your sound bites are going nowhere and it is time to bring this to the attention of the lawmakers of this land and to the general public if necessary. Only then will Moya Greene and her henchmen take note.