Ageny staff

sadlersbitch · Post by **sadlersbitch** » 08 Oct 2007, 17:57

When we left our office on weds there were 8 deliveries that hadn`t gone out, our DIM said "we (managers) would be doing these deliveries over the next 4 days"
Today on the picket line a member turned up and said he had seen 4 people with a Royal Mail trolley delivering the mail on one of these walks, he said they were too young to be managers , so two of us got in a car found these people said to them we thought you were on strike they replied no we are agency staff and the managers are dropping work out too them and they didnt have to go anywhere near the office, we rang our area and div reps and were told can you find out when they were employed, we are busy in london. what utter bollox we have enogh trouble running picket lines the job of checking wether agency staff are legit is not ours its someones at HQ
THE POINTS ARE-
we have had no agency staff at our office for ages
if they were kosher why werent they at our office?
why were they being hidden?
i hope the CWU take this up this is another example of Royal Mail taking the piss, they know the law regarding Industrial Action and the use of agency staff
any one else had the same?

Post by **disheartened** » 08 Oct 2007, 19:04

We (the CWU) are classed as being a thorn in RM's side,casuals/agency staff are a thorn in our side and are not helping our cause at all,what the answer is i do not know,i do believe th union are looking in to the legal side of RM employing casual/agency staff.I think RM can ask the Agency for them,but its up to the Agency to refuse to supply the staff,i know that sounds odd,but its something along them lines.

I do believe half the Polish population are now employed in the postal system

felang13 · Post by **felang13** » 08 Oct 2007, 19:24

As far as I know its illegal to employ an agency or to cover duties by outside workforce as long as the strike is legal .

billypants · Post by **billypants** » 08 Oct 2007, 20:07

felang13 wrote:As far as I know its illegal to employ an agency or to cover duties by outside workforce as long as the strike is legal .

as I understand it, it's illegal to employ agency staff specifically to cover work not done because of legal IA, however, what RM are doing is emloying them before, during and after the strike dates then claiming they are noy here purely to cover the strikes but just because they are needed generally . . . . . . a real grey area and the union solicitors are looking into it

sadlersbitch · Post by **sadlersbitch** » 09 Oct 2007, 13:58

was told today CWU HQ are looking into it
and that these agency workers were not strictly kosher alledgedly!

strangler · Post by **strangler** » 09 Oct 2007, 17:48

sadlersbitch wrote:was told today CWU HQ are looking into it
and that these agency workers were not strictly kosher alledgedly!

Some of the agency workers turn out to be illegal immigrants. Seen it with my own eyes!

frankie · Post by **frankie** » 16 Oct 2007, 09:46

Post by **piranha** » 16 Oct 2007, 13:25

strangler wrote:
sadlersbitch wrote:was told today CWU HQ are looking into it
and that these agency workers were not strictly kosher alledgedly!
Some of the agency workers turn out to be illegal immigrants. Seen it with my own eyes!

MOST of them nick something as well...funny the amount of parcels that
go missing during and after a strike...

somerset · Post by **somerset** » 16 Oct 2007, 13:55

frankie wrote:Anyone heard this rumour, that the wife of a RM management exec, (same level as Leighton and Crozier I only use them as an example and not as fact), either owns or manages an agency that employs casual foreign workers? This filtered down from a mail centre.

That rumour has been doing the circuit on here.The original rumour was that it was :lfo wife and Manpower? But as per usual with bloody rumours could not be proven!! Ask Lovejoy as he seems to be the man with the knowledge

frankie · Post by **frankie** » 16 Oct 2007, 14:24

Stockport · Post by **Stockport** » 16 Oct 2007, 17:23

There is a leaflet in Polish that can be used with agency staff who are polish and one in English for others on libcom. Quite good I think.

http://libcom.org/forums/organise/leafl ... s-09102007

I know there can be a bit of a tendency to think of agency staff as the lowest of the low but often thje fact is that they're even more f...d over than the rest of us.

We should be for all staff getting contracts though of course protecting overtime and certainly completely against any scab labour.

If they knowingly scan and don't care then sure they're scum bags but a lot of the time I've known people be persuaded to not work against a strike.

Tbh my wife is an agency worker and I was for a while- the thing is we all need to stick together and to appeal to basic class solidairty.

OK some may be a lost cause but many times people can be won over.