performance issues

[boogyman]

heard a manager telling someone today that members will start getting performance tests . if not up to the level royal mail require then members could be sacked. is their such a thing ?

[hans solo]

1 min test max

[meercat]

Tell them to put that in writing for you, it is an illegal threat.

You can not be sacked for failing these tests. You can only be coached to attain the performance level required. I don't think anyone in the history of RM has been sacked for not meeting these 1minute targets and if you were (after many many months of coaching and re-testing) you could successfully claim at an employment tribunal that your work had been satisfactory for X number of years and you had not gotten any worse as a worker in that time.

By all means you need to try meet these speed tests but you also need to know the exact agreement that applies to them. If you fail a 1m test tell them you are very happy to be coached to get faster.

There are 2 agreed tests I believe. One is into a standard walk frame (2000 frame), the frame must be empty before you start the test, enough mail must be to hand, test lasts 1 minute, you must be very familiar with the frame. Any other counting of your prepping into a walk frame is not something you need to be bothered about, it is not agreed by the union and RM can do nothing not even offer coaching on this unofficial test. If they do this, request a correct test.

Second agreed test is on IPS, and lasts 1minute. Again, all other tests should be ignored. Also you must be told you are being tested. If a manager sneaks up behind you with a stop watch tell him he is doing a non-agreed count and you will not accept his findings.

[boogyman]

thanks for comments !

[cloherty1976]

I remember years ago the ips tests used to happen a lot and you had to do 500 letters in 20 minutes. How things have changed.

[celerycelery]

In my 20+ years at rm I have never known someone sacked for "poor performance", it's just a threat a poor managers uses to intimidate people. I have known people sacked for not doing the job properly, ie. packet in a blue bin, signing for a special for someone etc but never for being slow on ips or prep.

[Surreypostie]

I had the 1 minute test recently, 1st person to take it, 1st person to fail it. knew the IPS before the revision. Revision been in 18 months or so. Had my errors pointed out to me by lino. My response was that is where the idiot board says they go so not really my fault. Never heard no more about it, Idiot board is still full of errors and omissions so I don't expect to pass a test anytime soon.