Martin Walsh has said today that they will be trialing non drivers doing IPS/Prep of Mondays mail on the Saturday and also trialling them being ''van assistants'' to assist with delivery of 1st class/tracked to see which is more viable
If everyone gets a van assistant then nobody will be getting Saturday off
This whole idea has had very little thought put into it.
CWU says there is still a full role for non driving staff whilst taking away one day of the week that they can perform that. Choosing a Saturday only for 1st class and packets isn’t the fault of non driving staff, so there is a very strong argument for them working Monday to Friday every week with weekends off. Obviously this has created a fuss with other staff so an idea to create a role on a Saturday has been quickly thought up. As someone else said, if you have too many ‘van assistants’ then no one gets any Saturdays off. Who gets a van assistant and who doesn’t?
The van assistants will get more Saturdays off too, CWU confirmed this yesterday, and for every assistant you need a driver, so less time off for them too.
Is anyone honestly going to be keen on having a "van assistant"?
Was quite looking forward to at least working on my own on the Saturday shifts instead of van sharing. Van assistant sounds even more annoying than van share park and loop.
When will the union and the company acknowledge that this job works better when on your own rather than being paired up. Being paired up is the most inefficient way to deliver things, we are the only company in our industry that does this ridiculous practice.
Is anyone honestly going to be keen on having a "van assistant"?
No one wants a 'van assistant' and no one wants to be one either. It's 2 people doing the same job when one of them could be having the day off.
That's what I thought, but thinking a bit further if it's still someone doing parcels and 1c for 2 duties on Saturdays then what's the savings in having an extra person "van assistant" helping, those same 2 people previously would have been delivering everything on both duties, I predict if you have an assistant so 2 up in a van you'll probably be expected to do all the parcels for 3 duties not just 2.
Is anyone honestly going to be keen on having a "van assistant"?
No one wants a 'van assistant' and no one wants to be one either. It's 2 people doing the same job when one of them could be having the day off.
That's what I thought, but thinking a bit further if it's still someone doing parcels and 1c for 2 duties on Saturdays then what's the savings in having an extra person "van assistant" helping, those same 2 people previously would have been delivering everything on both duties, I predict if you have an assistant so 2 up in a van you'll probably be expected to do all the parcels for 3 duties not just 2.
There's no savings to be had having 2 people in a van on a Saturday at the expense of failing duties Mon-Fri. How much extra work a driver/van assistant would get when paired up would never be able to be worked out as there are just too many factors to consider. Saturday indoor work/van assistant has been thought up because many people won't like the idea of some staff potentially getting every weekend off, which in my view seems a dead cert.
