CWU LIVE AT 5 – Royal Mail Update!

[Jefferson Starfish]

So the deputy General secretary of the cwu posts a comment and then deletes it a couple of hours later.

Spoke too soon Dingo?

A bit amateurish if you ask me.

[Sean06]

So the deputy General secretary of the cwu posts a comment and then deletes it a couple of hours later.

Spoke too soon Dingo?

A bit amateurish if you ask me.

100% agree.

[postslippete]

Thanks for your comments Martin. I did read them before you deleted your post!


And I agree, RM have lost significant market share of parcels in the UK since privatisation in 2013 and that might explain why we are delivering more parcels but perhaps don't make as much profit on them individually as before due to the competition. In contrast to this we are also delivering less letters but 1st class stamps have more than doubled in price as letter revenues have recently increased. Overall, IDS group revenues rose 8.2% to £3.3 billion in the 1st quarter of its financial year with RM making a £2 billion contribution to that.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... at%20poll.

In fact, RM achieved its best Xmas operating performance in 4 years when group profits were also up 9.8% on the previous year.

https://www.ipc.be/news-portal/operatio ... f-december

There is no getting away from the blatant mismanagement of the company in recent years and it's been their way or the highway regarding the USO. But....I get it. On average, RM now delivers only about four letters per address per week and the current USO makes it hard to cut the gigantic staff costs of £5 billion for 150,000 staff. 72.5% of the revenues of RM go to personnel and wages costs and Kretinsky has only guaranteed that there would be no compulsory redundancies until 2025. The reform of the USO is however one of the main reasons why I believe DK wants to invest in this company, it's not to improve the service but to make even greater profits.

https://moneyweek.com/economy/uk-econom ... -in-the-uk

There are still a few nagging concerns that are probably more serious than this though with DK only offering legally binding guarantees for fixed time periods - such as the USO for five years, or no change in the control of GLS or RM for just three years following the acquisition.

*update*
You also mention about more full-time jobs. One of the biggest issues in our office is that they have been continually bringing in new staff to replace those who have left on inferior contracts i.e. less hours and pay than the existing ones. There does seem to be a theme by the Union of using the figures to support RM's vision, rather than using them to support our vision and hold RM to account. The CWU will never attract new members if this is the case.

Oh, and what measures are in place to prevent any posties delivering any 2c on a Saturday if it somehow hasn't been delivered on a Thursday and a Friday?

[yellowbelly]

Let’s deal with some of the points.

The hourly rate of the old contract National is £14.44 with the delivery supplement.

The national hourly rate for new entrants is £12.57

The national living wage is £12.00 per hour and the national minimum wage hourly rate is £11.44

In terms of London and in particular the outer London rate the old contract receive in deliveries £16.98 per hour including the delivery supplement.

The new contracts only have one London rate and that is £14.92 per hour.

The London living wage hourly rate is £13.15.

...

We are in talks and will update members in the next couple of weeks.

He's getting the NLW and NMW rates wrong/mixed up. As a champion of workers rights I would have thought he'd be all over these basics.

NLW is £11.44 (for those aged 21 and over).

NMW is £6.40 - £8.60 (under 21 dependent on your age).

The 'London living wage hourly rate' of £13.15 is from the Mayor Of London's office, it's not law and is a choice by
employers to pay that rate.

[eggraidonmojo]

The National Minimum Wage is now called the 'National Living Wage'. The name was changed by the Tories because it sounds better.

The figures quoted are accurate, but I think Labour might abolish some or all of the age differentials.

The Living Wage Foundation is a pressure group which encourages employers to pay staff a real living wage.

It sets the Living Wage as £12.00 per hour across the UK and £13.15 in London.


https://livingwage.org.uk/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ge-in-2024

[TopperGas]

Thanks for your comments Martin. I did read them before you deleted your post!


And I agree, RM have lost significant market share of parcels in the UK since privatisation in 2013 and that might explain why we are delivering more parcels but perhaps don't make as much profit on them individually as before due to the competition. In contrast to this we are also delivering less letters but 1st class stamps have more than doubled in price as letter revenues have recently increased. Overall, IDS group revenues rose 8.2% to £3.3 billion in the 1st quarter of its financial year with RM making a £2 billion contribution to that.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... at%20poll.

In fact, RM achieved its best Xmas operating performance in 4 years when group profits were also up 9.8% on the previous year.

https://www.ipc.be/news-portal/operatio ... f-december

There is no getting away from the blatant mismanagement of the company in recent years and it's been their way or the highway regarding the USO. But....I get it. On average, RM now delivers only about four letters per address per week and the current USO makes it hard to cut the gigantic staff costs of £5 billion for 150,000 staff. 72.5% of the revenues of RM go to personnel and wages costs and Kretinsky has only guaranteed that there would be no compulsory redundancies until 2025. The reform of the USO is however one of the main reasons why I believe DK wants to invest in this company, it's not to improve the service but to make even greater profits.

https://moneyweek.com/economy/uk-econom ... -in-the-uk

There are still a few nagging concerns that are probably more serious than this though with DK only offering legally binding guarantees for fixed time periods - such as the USO for five years, or no change in the control of GLS or RM for just three years following the acquisition.

*update*
You also mention about more full-time jobs. One of the biggest issues in our office is that they have been continually bringing in new staff to replace those who have left on inferior contracts i.e. less hours and pay than the existing ones. There does seem to be a theme by the Union of using the figures to support RM's vision, rather than using them to support our vision and hold RM to account. The CWU will never attract new members if this is the case.

Oh, and what measures are in place to prevent any posties delivering any 2c on a Saturday if it somehow hasn't been delivered on a Thursday and a Friday?

Re full time jobs it's fairly easy for the CWU/RM to promise more full time jobs if the USO proposals are accepted but who actually believes more FT jobs will be created? Most posties in my DO who've worked for less than 5 years are still on PT contracts, and when we enquire if any FT roles are available we're told only if we are prepared to move to the new contracts which require Sunday working etc.

[SpacePhoenix]

Thanks for your comments Martin. I did read them before you deleted your post!


And I agree, RM have lost significant market share of parcels in the UK since privatisation in 2013 and that might explain why we are delivering more parcels but perhaps don't make as much profit on them individually as before due to the competition. In contrast to this we are also delivering less letters but 1st class stamps have more than doubled in price as letter revenues have recently increased. Overall, IDS group revenues rose 8.2% to £3.3 billion in the 1st quarter of its financial year with RM making a £2 billion contribution to that.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... at%20poll.

In fact, RM achieved its best Xmas operating performance in 4 years when group profits were also up 9.8% on the previous year.

https://www.ipc.be/news-portal/operatio ... f-december

There is no getting away from the blatant mismanagement of the company in recent years and it's been their way or the highway regarding the USO. But....I get it. On average, RM now delivers only about four letters per address per week and the current USO makes it hard to cut the gigantic staff costs of £5 billion for 150,000 staff. 72.5% of the revenues of RM go to personnel and wages costs and Kretinsky has only guaranteed that there would be no compulsory redundancies until 2025. The reform of the USO is however one of the main reasons why I believe DK wants to invest in this company, it's not to improve the service but to make even greater profits.

https://moneyweek.com/economy/uk-econom ... -in-the-uk

There are still a few nagging concerns that are probably more serious than this though with DK only offering legally binding guarantees for fixed time periods - such as the USO for five years, or no change in the control of GLS or RM for just three years following the acquisition.

*update*
You also mention about more full-time jobs. One of the biggest issues in our office is that they have been continually bringing in new staff to replace those who have left on inferior contracts i.e. less hours and pay than the existing ones. There does seem to be a theme by the Union of using the figures to support RM's vision, rather than using them to support our vision and hold RM to account. The CWU will never attract new members if this is the case.

Oh, and what measures are in place to prevent any posties delivering any 2c on a Saturday if it somehow hasn't been delivered on a Thursday and a Friday?

Re full time jobs it's fairly easy for the CWU/RM to promise more full time jobs if the USO proposals are accepted but who actually believes more FT jobs will be created? Most posties in my DO who've worked for less than 5 years are still on PT contracts, and when we enquire if any FT roles are available we're told only if we are prepared to move to the new contracts which require Sunday working etc.

Long term in DOs won't the only full time jobs be just about 7 or 8 hours out delivering, with very little if any indoor work?

[redlen]

It really angers me that the CWU is always silent on unachievable workloads which leads to a form of compulsory overtime or you will be branded not a team player by management. Not to mention overtime is paid at standard rate until you hit 40 hours, only then it is enhanced. Is it any wonder a new starters on a 25/30 hour contract resign? How can a trade union negotiate a two tier workforce on different pay rates doing exactly the same job? It stinks.

[postslippete]

Re full time jobs it's fairly easy for the CWU/RM to promise more full time jobs if the USO proposals are accepted but who actually believes more FT jobs will be created? Most posties in my DO who've worked for less than 5 years are still on PT contracts, and when we enquire if any FT roles are available we're told only if we are prepared to move to the new contracts which require Sunday working etc.

Unfortunately, parcels are where it is at now but the main thing the Union should push is that they are not on any inferior pay by upgrading their hours like these new contracts. If anything, they should pay these guys more for working these shifts that most people don't want because RM will be gaining more business and an increasing share of next day parcels by getting all the Tracked 24 delivered. Win-win.

[Barnacle]

It really angers me that the CWU is always silent on unachievable workloads which leads to a form of compulsory overtime or you will be branded not a team player by management. Not to mention overtime is paid at standard rate until you hit 40 hours, only then it is enhanced. Is it any wonder a new starters on a 25/30 hour contract resign? How can a trade union negotiate a two tier workforce on different pay rates doing exactly the same job? It stinks.

It’s in the National Conduct Agreement:

• No one can be conduct coded for running out of time to delivery everything they are given within scheduled work hours.
  It is up to managers to ensure you do not have more work than you can complete.
  Inform managers of what you will be unable to complete. It is then for them to record it as a fail or find someone to cover it, or pay overtime.
  It’s THEIR issue to manage.

[TopperGas]

It really angers me that the CWU is always silent on unachievable workloads which leads to a form of compulsory overtime or you will be branded not a team player by management. Not to mention overtime is paid at standard rate until you hit 40 hours, only then it is enhanced. Is it any wonder a new starters on a 25/30 hour contract resign? How can a trade union negotiate a two tier workforce on different pay rates doing exactly the same job? It stinks.

It’s in the National Conduct Agreement:

• No one can be conduct coded for running out of time to delivery everything they are given within scheduled work hours.
  It is up to managers to ensure you do not have more work than you can complete.
  Inform managers of what you will be unable to complete. It is then for them to record it as a fail or find someone to cover it, or pay overtime.
  It’s THEIR issue to manage.

The OP never suggested staff are being disciplined just that they are expected to complete their rounds each day, the managers manage it by "encouraging" PT staff to work FT.

[postslippete]

Long term in DOs won't the only full time jobs be just about 7 or 8 hours out delivering, with very little if any indoor work?

Most of the time spent indoors is prepping frames with sequenced mail and marking the packets but the business has already trialled bench merging years ago and it wasn't successful. With this in mind, is merging two days worth of 2c any more efficient than simply putting them into a sequenced frame? Considering how RM have a tendency to move new staff all over the place onto different duties, it's hard to see how it would be more efficient not to have some sort of guide to work with. Throw in the mix of organising the packets amongst them and it could be the perfect storm.

Also, just driving round delivering the Tracked parcels on a frame without any of the post can take anywhere from 3 hours upwards working on the basis of around 15-20 parcels an hour. It might work better on a rural duty where the call rates are a lot less than a busy town duty.

[tramssirhc]

Deleted

Martin, why delete your post? The CWU live was full of inaccuracies and they need putting right. An example was your assertion that members could knock 25 minutes off the later finishes. That's simply not true.

Trying to justify the attacks in delivery by comparing workloads on the basis of the value of a delivery pouch doesn't work - you only carried one bag all day. Members today can be carrying up to 10 bags in a duty.

Are you going to put right your claim that everyone is getting over £29 in functional supplement?

When are you going to publicly acknowledge that OFCOM has agreed to a reduction in the USO performance targets resulting in offices that had never failed the USO now failing them everyday? This isn't a future reduction, it's today's reduction, happening now. The CWU must know about it. The CWU certainly hasn't done anything about it.

You never had to work until 8 or 9 pm on delivery and you would have been the first to say no to doing it. There is nothing progressive in justifying the destroying of Members t's and C's.

Attacking Members for 'not wanting to work Sundays' is dishonest. Many Members were already working Sundays before the dispute. Many others were happy to get into negotiations to see Sunday working as part of the working week in return for duty patterns that rewarded that commitment.

You must remember Martin, you and the postal executive recommended the deal. It did not win popular support. Any failings with that agreement are your, and the postal executives, responsibility. It's yours to own.

Putting out material like the CWU live is doing nothing to repair the damage the postal executive has done since the agreement was finalised. The reputation of the CWU is on the floor. You won't repair the relationship with the rank and file by pumping out disinformation.

[malnuman]

The OP never suggested staff are being disciplined just that they are expected to complete their rounds each day, the managers manage it by "encouraging" PT staff to work FT.
[/quote]

True, been a new starter I would not have the confidence to bring mail /parcels back, I've worked over a few times, only likev15-20 mins, but my manager just says it makes up for the times i get back early., but of course I can't go home, I still have to wait to scan out at my official fin time.. so I don't gain anything if I'm back 30 mins early