Locked up depot -duty of care from RM managers

[robriggs]

This a situation which has been brought up regularly at our office. Sundays now just a normal day,all be it parcels only. All new starters now have to do a certain amount of Sundays. 15/20 postys work at ours on a Sunday,yet no actual “real” manager ever works one. They advertise for a normal posty to be a “Sunday manager” on overtime. Quite a lot of responsibility really.
Drivers regularly are still delivering after the office has locked up and the manager has gone home. Vans returning are just parked up in the public car park with packets left inside overnight. This is the norm,Royal Mail obviously letting this happen. Doesn’t seem right to us. If you breakdown then you need to sort it yourself don’t you,up to you to phone for assistance. If they say it’s going to be a few hours then you just abandon the van for the night with the packets inside. Again,doesn’t seem right.

[Tiggy76]

Any union reps who want to comment on all of this? It's happening on your watch and seems to be breaking all protocol.

[fadetogrey63]

This a situation which has been brought up regularly at our office. Sundays now just a normal day,all be it parcels only.

Normal day is right, when I first started doing Sundays I was told large oversize only, which was the case, past two times though had loads of small packets, Inc moonpig cards and yesterday they started giving us specials which we had to wait extra at the DO to arrive..

[tramssirhc]

Any union reps who want to comment on all of this? It's happening on your watch and seems to be breaking all protocol.

The CWU"s not arsed. It doesn't affect their members on the whole and the CWU couldn't care less about the post 2022 contracts. Lets be honest the rep in your office doesn't care as proved by the very fact that what you describe is happening.

[Patmanposts]

I’m not a solicitor, however

IMO, From a legality / duty of care point of view (Which a manager 100% has) this is a disaster waiting to happen should your regular manager or covering manager not be contactable. By this i mean turned phone off or not provided you with cover details. No phone signal is probably mitigation.

As someone has already mentioned: the not unreasonable (probably highly likely) event of a breakdown and you cannot contact the manager and then you are left with no choice but to seek alternative help or start walking….it’s in this scenario that if you came to physical harm (hit by a vehicle or robbed etc) then i would say you have reasonable grounds to say the manager / company has failed in it’s legal duty to keep you safe.

[SkiSunday]

I’m not a solicitor, however

IMO, From a legality / duty of care point of view (Which a manager 100% has) this is a disaster waiting to happen should your regular manager or covering manager not be contactable. By this i mean turned phone off or not provided you with cover details. No phone signal is probably mitigation.

As someone has already mentioned: the not unreasonable (probably highly likely) event of a breakdown and you cannot contact the manager and then you are left with no choice but to seek alternative help or start walking….it’s in this scenario that if you came to physical harm (hit by a vehicle or robbed etc) then i would say you have reasonable grounds to say the manager / company has failed in it’s legal duty to keep you safe.

It would be interesting to see the wording of a COMs contract. Also they have a way stronger union than we do unfortunately.

[Moose67]

Didn't managements pay deal during our last industrial action agree to work on Sundays or is that something that has been forgotten about

[Tiggy76]

I’m not a solicitor, however

IMO, From a legality / duty of care point of view (Which a manager 100% has) this is a disaster waiting to happen should your regular manager or covering manager not be contactable. By this i mean turned phone off or not provided you with cover details. No phone signal is probably mitigation.

As someone has already mentioned: the not unreasonable (probably highly likely) event of a breakdown and you cannot contact the manager and then you are left with no choice but to seek alternative help or start walking….it’s in this scenario that if you came to physical harm (hit by a vehicle or robbed etc) then i would say you have reasonable grounds to say the manager / company has failed in it’s legal duty to keep you safe.

It feels that we are being let down and noone is listening. This is a Union chat and noone from CWU has said anything. They know that this commonplace and do nothing. So disappointing.

[redlen]

You have an individual with the designation Person in Charge (PIC)

who locks up the office in which they receive a pay supplement for this responsibility.
As long as risk assessments are in place for a lone worker can see no issues.
Security guards work alone all the time.

[SkiSunday]

You have an individual with the designation Person in Charge (PIC)

who locks up the office in which they receive a pay supplement for this responsibility.
As long as risk assessments are in place for a lone worker can see no issues.
Security guards work alone all the time.

PIC is a key holder and they should be at the DO to lock up.and able to attend if the alarm is tripped. None of ours get any extra supplement for it.
How much supplement do your guys get per week?

[Tiggy76]

I’m not a solicitor, however

IMO, From a legality / duty of care point of view (Which a manager 100% has) this is a disaster waiting to happen should your regular manager or covering manager not be contactable. By this i mean turned phone off or not provided you with cover details. No phone signal is probably mitigation.

As someone has already mentioned: the not unreasonable (probably highly likely) event of a breakdown and you cannot contact the manager and then you are left with no choice but to seek alternative help or start walking….it’s in this scenario that if you came to physical harm (hit by a vehicle or robbed etc) then i would say you have reasonable grounds to say the manager / company has failed in it’s legal duty to keep you safe.

It feels that we are being let down and noone is listening. This is a Union chat and noone from CWU has said anything. They know that this commonplace and do nothing. So disappointing.

[Tiggy76]

You have an individual with the designation Person in Charge (PIC)

who locks up the office in which they receive a pay supplement for this responsibility.
As long as risk assessments are in place for a lone worker can see no issues.
Security guards work alone all the time.

I think the issue at a lot of depots is that there is noone doing this, so vans with parcels and mail just left in the vans overnight parked on the street.

[Tiggy76]

You have an individual with the designation Person in Charge (PIC)

who locks up the office in which they receive a pay supplement for this responsibility.
As long as risk assessments are in place for a lone worker can see no issues.
Security guards work alone all the time.

I think the issue at a lot of depots is that there is noone doing this, so vans with parcels and mail just left in the vans overnight parked on the street.

Does this person deal with our breakdowns and come out to change tyres etc?!

[redlen]

Why??

You use your PDA for that

[Tiggy76]

Why??

You use your PDA for that

Use the PDA for what? Sorry I think I've missed something in the thread.