I work at a closing Mail Centre where there are a number of employees who will be taking VR on one of the 3 phases over which the closure will be taking place (Oct 07, Jan 08, June 08).
Some of these VRs will be for people under the age of 50 (lump sum) and some over 50 (either TMA or MTSF2).
As the VRs are being calculated on the persons last 6 months pensionable pay it is clear that unpaid strikes could potentially have a detrimental affect on release terms. In simple terms if you base the working year on 260 days then each strike day reduces the VR package by 0.77% and for 4 days 3.08%.
There have been alot of mixed messages coming out from RM's VR Helpline, local management and local CWU and no definitive statement has been issued to clarify things.
Without discussing the rights or the wrongs of whether these people should be striking or not it is clear that they have been put in a very difficult situation.
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