Fears that city could lose 400 Royal Mail jobs in Derby

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Fears that city could lose 400 Royal Mail jobs in office closure http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/ ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UP TO 400 jobs could be lost from Derby if Royal Mail goes ahead with plans to sort the city's post in Nottingham, a union has warned.

The company is currently consulting with union officials about the proposals, which are part of a Midlands-wide shake-up after a fall in demand for its services.

Both Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union agree that shifting the sorting operation from Derby Mail Centre will not result in compulsory redundancies.

But employees who want to stay within the organisation may have to move jobs, possibly to Nottingham, and some posts would be lost through natural wastage and voluntary redundancy.

It is not known what will happen to the Midland Road building if the proposals get the go-ahead.

Lee Barron, the union's Midlands regional secretary, believes it will close and the building will be sold – despite it also being used for other work, such as collection of mail by postal workers, which is not affected by the proposals.

He said: "You're not going to keep a building of that size for a few hundred delivery people. But we don't want to protect bricks and mortar, we want to protect jobs."

Royal Mail would not say how many staff could be affected but Mr Barron estimated up to 400 people. Paul Jobling, the company's operations director for the Midlands, said the proposals would see the number of employees across the region fall by about 550, to 18,000.

That figure represents the overall number of jobs that would be lost and does not include all staff who would be affected, including those who move roles within the organisation.

He said: "With people demonstrating reasonable flexibility, Royal Mail expects that all its staff who wish to remain in the business will be able to do so.

"Our aim is to manage any reductions through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies."

The proposals come after the sorting of 150,000 items of second-class post moved from Derby to Nottingham in September 2009.

The union said then that it feared the move signalled the start of a process to wind down and close Derby Mail Centre.

An anonymous member of staff said that although there had been consultation with union officials about the new proposals, Royal Mail "don't listen to us".

He added: "They want to run this place down."

But Mr Jobling said there had been "months" of consultation with the Communication Workers Union and Unite CMA.

He said: "The number of items posted each year in the Midlands has fallen by more than 400 million since 2006 and will be less than half the volume of ten years ago by 2015.

"As a result, Royal Mail must review its mail processing operations in the region and is undertaking a modernisation programme, aimed at ensuring a successful future for the letters and parcels business.

"This involves having the appropriate number of people in our business as well as deploying the latest technology and equipment.

"Our initial view is to have four mail centres sorting mail for the midlands, namely Birmingham, North West Midlands (Wolverhampton), Nottingham and South Midlands (Northampton)."

Mr Barron said: "We accept that national volumes of mail are going down but not to the level which Royal Mail is saying."

Consultations with the unions are set to continue and they will have the chance to put forward alternative proposals, Royal Mail's Mr Jobling said.

A formal proposal is due to be announced in the next couple of months.

[arnold cheshire]

.

[Phantom]

this company has no heart

So why aren't the union balloting Derby then? London is getting a ballot for the same reason? FFS CWU open your f***ing eyes to RM, they DO NOT WANT TO WORK with you!!!

[George door to dawes]

So why aren't the union balloting Derby then? London is getting a ballot for the same reason? FFS CWU open your f***ing eyes to RM, they DO NOT WANT TO WORK with you!!!

"Our aim is to manage any reductions through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies."

To be fair the situation is a little different then london. In london their are almost certain to be compulsory redundancies which goes against the union agreements. Not saying its right but the CWU cant fight every job loss!

[clashcityrocker]

So why aren't the union balloting Derby then? London is getting a ballot for the same reason? FFS CWU open your f***ing eyes to RM, they DO NOT WANT TO WORK with you!!!

Both Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union agree that shifting the sorting operation from Derby Mail Centre will not result in compulsory redundancies.

It isn't the same is it?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

So why aren't the union balloting Derby then? London is getting a ballot for the same reason? FFS CWU open your f***ing eyes to RM, they DO NOT WANT TO WORK with you!!!

"Our aim is to manage any reductions through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies."

To be fair the situation is a little different then london. In london their are almost certain to be compulsory redundancies which goes against the union agreements. Not saying its right but the CWU cant fight every job loss!

But Royal Mail are singing the same song for both areas:

Lodon: http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... ng#p368344" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The company said it believed it would not be forced into making compulsory redundancies.

"With people demonstrating reasonable flexibility, Royal Mail expects that everyone who wants to remain in the business will be able to do so," it said.

Derby:

He said: "With people demonstrating reasonable flexibility, Royal Mail expects that all its staff who wish to remain in the business will be able to do so.

"Our aim is to manage any reductions through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies."

Cant see much difference apart from numbers involved and is that really the only criteria. As I have said before the CWU have to take the membership views on board, a lot see London being treated as a special case again and the onus on the Union is to demonstrate why its a special case.

An injury one is an injury to all.

I will also state that I support Londons call for a strike, and I would also support Derby if they asked for a national ballot, but the CWU are in danger of causing a split in membership if they don't address the common view that London is being treated as a special case, when members can't see any difefrence.

[clashcityrocker]

Are the CWU in Derby saying the move will cause compulsory redundancies?

Because they are in London and that's why they are balloting.

[Phantom]

Are the CWU in Derby saying the move will cause compulsory redundancies?

Because they are in London and that's why they are balloting.

So what if someone doesn't want to or can't travel to Nottingham then? Its the same in London, if you're at a mail centre that is due to close then you can travel to the nearest one! So it is the same situation the CWU can't be sure of compulsory redundencies and RM haven't said there is going to be either. Don't worry i'm not sticking up for RM but Derby, Hull, York, Doncaster all need balloting in my opinion and along with Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds cos this is where the work is being transferred to!

[George door to dawes]

So why aren't the union balloting Derby then? London is getting a ballot for the same reason? FFS CWU open your f***ing eyes to RM, they DO NOT WANT TO WORK with you!!!

"Our aim is to manage any reductions through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies."

To be fair the situation is a little different then london. In london their are almost certain to be compulsory redundancies which goes against the union agreements. Not saying its right but the CWU cant fight every job loss!

But Royal Mail are singing the same song for both areas:

Lodon: http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... ng#p368344" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The company said it believed it would not be forced into making compulsory redundancies.

"With people demonstrating reasonable flexibility, Royal Mail expects that everyone who wants to remain in the business will be able to do so," it said.

Derby:

He said: "With people demonstrating reasonable flexibility, Royal Mail expects that all its staff who wish to remain in the business will be able to do so.

"Our aim is to manage any reductions through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies."

Cant see much difference apart from numbers involved and is that really the only criteria. As I have said before the CWU have to take the membership views on board, a lot see London being treated as a special case again and the onus on the Union is to demonstrate why its a special case.

An injury one is an injury to all.

I will also state that I support Londons call for a strike, and I would also support Derby if they asked for a national ballot, but the CWU are in danger of causing a split in membership if they don't address the common view that London is being treated as a special case, when members can't see any difefrence.

I cant argue with the press releases as they are obviously the same! But didnt that CWU update letter we all got imply that there would definitely be compulsory redundancies for the london closures? I thought this was the big issue that people would not have a choice about their redundancy and the compulsory redundancy attracted a lower rate of payment?

Iam not arguing for letting the midlands closures go ahead without a strike. i would definitely vote yes as an employee of one of the affected mail centres i would stand by my colleagues without a second thought. I would do the same for london if asked. But i thought the current campaign was against compulsory redundancies not against closures?

[edwardo]

why should royal mail staff think they should be exempt from compulsory redundancy 1000's of people have lost their jobs in other areas of business and london does get preferance from c w u than the rest of the country . not from me though

[POSTMAN]

[heathrow86]

So what happens then if all the workers at Derby, want to transfer to Nottingham? Would there be enough jobs for all the Notts and Derby staff? Probably not, so it would it lead to compulsory reduntances, as it is in london?

[fishtank]

It isn't the same is it?

Doesn't look much different to me at the moment..
Maybe once a proper preference exercise was done it would but that hasn't happened in either case so as it stands both could result in compulsory redundancies.
Given the numbers supplied by the LDC...London has greater numbers and looks more likely but London also has far more alternative units in what would be considered by some to be a reasonable travelling distance.
Again we are back to what would be considered a reasonable offer,can you follow the work and if there is no work to follow due to overcapacity....is a job...a job?
Besides that the members are getting confused about who has called for a ballot in London...it's not HQ it's the London Divisional Committee...if the Midlands want to follow suit i don't think HQ would block them.

[POSTMAN]

But London DO's are being hit so tbf i can't see there being a lot of options.
Off the top of my head we could lose 4 heads,and we run a tight ship.

[fishtank]

But London DO's are being hit so tbf i can't see there being a lot of options.
Off the top of my head we could lose 4 heads,and we run a tight ship.

In what way are London DO's being hit differently to Derby and Nottingham?