Prepping another walk's election material?

[islipaway]

I'd like to clear up some confusion I've been having over prepping the election materials/poll cards.

My understanding was that the election material is considered separate from standard work, and that the money you receive for it was payment for both prepping and delivering the material, which is why you cannot claim OT for going over delivering election material.

Today I was asked to throw up election material for a walk which I was not delivering on (I had already thrown my own election material up on Saturday).

I refused and both a senior member of staff and the union rep told me I should do it. I subsequently contacted my previous union rep for advice and he confirmed I was right.

Does anyone have a definitive answer either way?

Thanks!

[El-Bandito]

Step away from the frame. Separate payment. Enough said.

[Judgee]

As you will be doing half the work say you will do it for half the money. If they say no then leave them to it.

There is a separate payment for them and it is for the prep AND delivery. So unless you feel like earning someone else money off your sweat, stand your ground!

[islipaway]

Cheers guys, this is the only perspective that makes any sense. It doesn't help when the guy prepping the frame next to you has done the election material on 2 frames already no questions asked! I didn't do it and I won't be doing it in future. I wish there was something in writing I could reference if they try and force me again though.

[chrisj]

I actually think you should just have prepped the materials as you are still employed to prep an additional walk and you are still working within your contractual hours...

I do think the the question of payment should be your concern: why?

Who claims for the prepping of lapsed walks? And who exactly is going to prep for the part timer who is going to be delivering the election materials?

I double-prepped today for a part timer - he had 100 polling cards on his walk and I had 70 polling cards and we were on a P&L shared walk; who exactly is going to be counting each and every polling card on each and every loop?

The part timer will put 100 down on his election payment sheet and I will put down 70 on mine. It does not really matter too much as I was still working within my time and the job had to be done...

The whole thing is a bit of a minefield... We are allowed to claim for election materials on lapsed walks despite it being thrown out by posties whose job it is to prep the lapsed walks.

[19times]

How about this.

Manager prepped mine but I delivered them do we go 50/50

[coxie]

Liberty , I wouldn't do it

[motherhubbard]

If you have the time what is the problem?
You are helping a colleague out. Isn't that what we are supposed to do?
Especially if you are still doing it as part of your contracted 39 hours to help someone on a 25/30 hour contract.
What really is the big deal?

[ass asin]

no way would I prep in election material for someone else.

[chrisj]

I think the delivery side is the real issue when it comes to payment. Afterall, the election materials do not have to be prepped or even delivered in just one day... So you prep what you can within your contractual time; and you claim payment on your own walk...

The manager could have insisted and the whole thing might have been more problematic especially with your own Union Rep saying that you should just prep the election materials.

[islipaway]

I was part time during the last election (european) and I had to prep my own election material as it wasn't considered part of regular duty.

This issue today was in a different office. I am still employed by my original office but am own loan. I am still on part time contract but I took some overtime to prep my own walk as there's not enough full time staff to have the part time walks prepped at the moment (lots of sickness and 5 people on holiday in a 16 walk office), Dom on sick leave, replacement manager on holiday. I normally put the sequenced mail up on a couple of frames after my own, depending on time.

The union rep that said I should prep the frame isn't the one from the office I am payed and employed by.

I'm not trying to get out of work. I think I work harder than most I've come across. I never cut off unless I have a really good reason (twice last year) and I've not had a single sick day in two years. I just think asking someone to prep election material for someone else when they won't get a sniff of the compensation isn't right. When it comes to helping another member of staff there's 100 things I could be doing before that. I was being asked to put election material into a frame I've never prepped before when there were two boxes of sequenced that hadn't been touched. Should I still have done the election material as a priority?

[chrisj]

It just all depends... There is no particular guideline.

The same with the issue of prepping for 20+ hours part timers (at least in my office): the managers are rarely consistent, e.g, do you prep and keep time with the IPS folks or do you have to prep just the mail or fully prep with parcels or completely fully prep with parcels, redirections and kill offs.

In addition, the managers expect more from some posties than others and like your situation; a postie might refuse and get away with and another might be pulled up for it.

Well, it is really up to - you have the backing of your usual Rep...

[POSTMAN]

which is why you cannot claim OT for going over delivering election material.

You can,but then you kinda can't but you kinda can...

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 09#p692034" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Judgee]

Unbelievable! You have people on here telling you to do it if you have time and can't see a problem with that????

It is not standard workload that is why it comes with an additional payment. If you prep it guess what? Either the guy/girl on the walk you prepped makes money out of you or the lino gets a few extra quid in his pay packet. Whether you have time or not is not the issue here and anyone who suggests otherwise is either a manager or someone living in cloud cuckoo land!

Do it if you want to help someone out or if they agree part payment. Do not do it because you feel you have too!

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

That letter (linked to above) does nothing to clear the waters really for anyone on the shop floor, because even if you are on a duty that has a proven history of normally needing overtime, the counting/prep/delivering of election material will use more time...

I could see some linos/DOMS getting "funny" even when facing that "clarification" letter.

They really should use DTN technology, where time officially freezes when you get no answer from the intended address and then go looking for someone to babysit an item, before returning to original address to let them know where item is today.