What executive action, if any, is happening at your place?

[wandle]

So all Royal Mail need to tell OFCOM is, if we keep raising the price of stamps in order to sustain the current USO, this will only accelerate the decline in letters as people are already whining ‘76p for a 1st Class stamp?!!!’ They’ll likely argue: ‘make the USO 5 or 4 days per week and we’ll agree to a freeze on stamp prices’
?

[yellowbelly]

...........

I was under the impression Royal Mail requested the review be brought forward from 2022.

The 2011 legislation set out Ofcom’s specific statutory duties in Part 3 of the Act, which is entitled: ‘Regulation of Postal Services’.
Subsection 1 in this Part of the Act states:
"OFCOM must carry out their functions in relation to postal services in a way that they consider will secure the provision of a universal postal service"

We already comply with the EC directive regarding providing a USO over 5 working days - all it would take is for a change to the postal services
act to drop the USO to the 5 working days (Tory majority in parliament don't forget and they could declare - 'look we're still complying with
EU standards' thus taking a lot of the wind out of any opponents sails....) and then OFCOM can carry on with making sure we provide it.

I don't want a 5 day working week as much as the next postie but as others have said, all RM need to do is convince OFCOM/Govt. that as
a private company they can't sustain the USO over 6 days. What are OFCOM/Govt going to do? Take it back into public ownership
like some of the rail franchises? - doubt it very much - they would get hammered for being 'New Old Labour' and say it would cost too
much for the taxpayer. Who else could take over the USO.......?

How many of European colleagues already work a 5 day USO - I'm sure I've seen a comparison table somewhere on the boards before but can't find it at this time
and it's time to deliver those letters!

RIght - it's raining outside - rain coat - check, PDA doorstop (as it's useless in the wet) - check, onwards and upwards....!

[Celgar]

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that, if we vote to strike AND then actually DO strike, the big institutional shareholders who have bought shares in the company since before September 2018 will finally lose patience with Rico and his cohorts. Don’t forget, some of them have bought at prices ranging from 600p all the way down to 200p, and are currently nursing losses of anything up to 70% of their investment.
I think we should be more worried about a hostile bidder trying to gain control of Royal Mail. Someone like DHL bidding even as low as the original share price would have institutional investors accepting, and cutting their losses (or, in the case of recent purchasers, a quick profit).
This, in my opinion, is a real possibility

Unlikely about the investors. It will the Staff and the Union that will get the blame. Remenber the City hates Trade Unions.

Your 2nd point about a hostile takeover is a real possibility. Watch the share price.

It was reported via this site recently that large corporate shareholders in RM have asked Rico if it might be better or wise to consult with the CWU rather than blank them. The response I think was something along the lines of this is our company and we will do with it what we like. The stockmarket runs purely on confidence and image so the city isn't going to tell the unions to **** off if that will result in damage to their business or losing money.

[Celgar]

It's hard to know what RM would like to happen as regards any changes to the USO. I get the impression they wouldn't want to lose one of the working days. Losing the Saturday would save them loads of money and Saturdays off plus a pay rise would likely prevent a strike if past attitudes to accepting bribes from RM are anything to go by.
I think a lot of other national postal services have switched to an every other day service. I don't think our mail levels have dropped enough to make that possible to achieve by RM. The most favourable change would be to get rid of the DSA. If we could remove ourselves from the GDPR as well we would be in a very good position. I cannot see the trials for the new parcel strategy being successful or possible to achieve either so Rico may have dug a big hole with a big sign saying "Consignia" above it. All he needs to do is call into the hole.

[SpacePhoenix]

It's hard to know what RM would like to happen as regards any changes to the USO. I get the impression they wouldn't want to lose one of the working days. Losing the Saturday would save them loads of money and Saturdays off plus a pay rise would likely prevent a strike if past attitudes to accepting bribes from RM are anything to go by.
I think a lot of other national postal services have switched to an every other day service. I don't think our mail levels have dropped enough to make that possible to achieve by RM.

5 days a week for letters and flats maybe but I can't see RM axing Saturdays for packets, for one there's probably a greater chance of people being in. If anything I reckon RM will eventually have Tracked and maybe SDs deliverable on Sundays as well (for a premium)

If we could remove ourselves from the GDPR as well we would be in a very good position.

Won't happen as any company that trades in Europe is bound by the GDPR regs. RM trades in Europe via its GLS subsidiary

[Dorset Plodder]

It's hard to know what RM would like to happen as regards any changes to the USO. I get the impression they wouldn't want to lose one of the working days. Losing the Saturday would save them loads of money and Saturdays off plus a pay rise would likely prevent a strike if past attitudes to accepting bribes from RM are anything to go by.
.

I think we shouldn't build our hopes up too much for getting Saturdays off. We thought we'd get an hour knocked of Saturdays, and we ended up with 12.5 minutes, knocked of our start times every day . Whose to say you won't end up having Mondays off... or having a rolling system of two days per week? Royal Mail is very clever at promising to do one thing, and then twisting it their own way.

[Celgar]

It's hard to know what RM would like to happen as regards any changes to the USO. I get the impression they wouldn't want to lose one of the working days. Losing the Saturday would save them loads of money and Saturdays off plus a pay rise would likely prevent a strike if past attitudes to accepting bribes from RM are anything to go by.
.

I think we shouldn't build our hopes up too much for getting Saturdays off. We thought we'd get an hour knocked of Saturdays, and we ended up with 12.5 minutes, knocked of our start times every day . Whose to say you won't end up having Mondays off... or having a rolling system of two days per week? Royal Mail is very clever at promising to do one thing, and then twisting it their own way.

As far as I know, but I may be mistaken, all offices were able to allocate the minutes to suit how the office duty hours were set up so in theory the sixty minutes could be deducted from the quieter days. It is not uncommon for Saturday's to be one of the busiest or even the busiest day of the week in terms of workload so there could be pitfalls with allocating all the minutes to Saturdays. RM didn't want the time deducted from the end of duty time though so that could not be done.
I'm not personally in favour of RM moving to a five day operation because there would be thousands of job losses and a considerable pay cut from the removal of the RRIS. I don't think RM will do it as it decrease s their capability to deliver so they will find other ways to attack us.

[wacko74]

When we had a senior manager come in the other week he claimed RM has no desire at all to reduce the USO but that OFCOM could actually force a reduction on RM if it continues to look non-viable... So I suspect this is the way RM will spin it, claiming they really don't want the USO to be reduced but OFCOM are forcing them to do it.

[Dorset Plodder]

As far as I know, but I may be mistaken, all offices were able to allocate the minutes to suit how the office duty hours were set up so in theory the sixty minutes could be deducted from the quieter days. It is not uncommon for Saturday's to be one of the busiest or even the busiest day of the week in terms of workload so there could be pitfalls with allocating all the minutes to Saturdays. RM didn't want the time deducted from the end of duty time though so that could not be done.

I think you're right there Celgar. It was probably "Agreed" between the DOM & the Unit Rep. I think this sort of thing needs to discused at Unit Level (with the CWU members) before it's put into practice .... My Office has a habit of things happening without anybody being coculted.

I'm not personally in favour of RM moving to a five day operation because there would be thousands of job losses and a considerable pay cut from the removal of the RRIS. I don't think RM will do it as it decrease s their capability to deliver so they will find other ways to attack us.

Absolutely in FULL Agreement with you on that. As soon as RM degrade the USO they'll be able to lay off thousands of Leave & Day Reserves, that will no longer be needed. It's a worry.

[SpacePhoenix]

As far as I know, but I may be mistaken, all offices were able to allocate the minutes to suit how the office duty hours were set up so in theory the sixty minutes could be deducted from the quieter days. It is not uncommon for Saturday's to be one of the busiest or even the busiest day of the week in terms of workload so there could be pitfalls with allocating all the minutes to Saturdays. RM didn't want the time deducted from the end of duty time though so that could not be done.

I think you're right there Celgar. It was probably "Agreed" between the DOM & the Unit Rep. I think this sort of thing needs to discused at Unit Level (with the CWU members) before it's put into practice .... My Office has a habit of things happening without anybody being coculted.

I'm not personally in favour of RM moving to a five day operation because there would be thousands of job losses and a considerable pay cut from the removal of the RRIS. I don't think RM will do it as it decrease s their capability to deliver so they will find other ways to attack us.

Absolutely in FULL Agreement with you on that. As soon as RM degrade the USO they'll be able to lay of thousands of Leave & Day Reserves, that will no longer be needed. It's a worry.

Depending on the degree of degrading, RM could do away with all iLSMs, IMPs, CSS and FSMs as if there were enough days between when a letter was posted and when a letter was due for delivery, what advantage would there be to sequencing the mail, or even using machines?

[Binsey]

What the hell is “extreme executive action?”

On the Union WhatsApp today

[GRS]

People say they are against losing Saturday as a delivery day due to the job loses it will cause........ in fact the CWU themselves often use this argument and yet in hundreds of posts throughout this site you’ll read so many people saying that they (and apparently all their colleagues in their office) would snatch RM’s hand off if they offered redundancy. So what is it - people want to protect the 6 day service and their jobs or take the money and run.

[Dorset Plodder]

Depending on the degree of degrading, RM could do away with all iLSMs, IMPs, CSS and FSMs as if there were enough days between when a letter was posted and when a letter was due for delivery, what advantage would there be to sequencing the mail, or even using machines?

I have very little experience of Mail Centres, but I presume RM have spent a lot of money on all this equipment? It would seem a backward step to move away from walk sequenced mail, and would start to re-introduce more "Indoor Working", which RM seem to be wanting to reduce all the time.

[Woody Guthrie]

People say they are against losing Saturday as a delivery day due to the job loses it will cause........ in fact the CWU themselves often use this argument and yet in hundreds of posts throughout this site you’ll read so many people saying that they (and apparently all their colleagues in their office) would snatch RM’s hand off if they offered redundancy. So what is it - people want to protect the 6 day service and their jobs or take the money and run.

It is not a zero sum game.
Fighting the changes in the USO does not equal the retention of 20,000 jobs. In fact it's easier to argue (even if it's harder to stomach) that retaining the USO as it is puts more jobs at risk, all of them.

We need to be pragmatic, realistic and remember something Jimmy Reid once said... you can't go on strike if you don't have a job.

[mickeymacca]

People say they are against losing Saturday as a delivery day due to the job loses it will cause........ in fact the CWU themselves often use this argument and yet in hundreds of posts throughout this site you’ll read so many people saying that they (and apparently all their colleagues in their office) would snatch RM’s hand off if they offered redundancy. So what is it - people want to protect the 6 day service and their jobs or take the money and run.

It is not a zero sum game.
Fighting the changes in the USO does not equal the retention of 20,000 jobs. In fact it's easier to argue (even if it's harder to stomach) that retaining the USO as it is puts more jobs at risk, all of them.

We need to be pragmatic, realistic and remember something Jimmy Reid once said... you can't go on strike if you don't have a job.

A pragmatic, realistic approach is something I have seen little evidence of from the the CWU, I hope some of these videos rallying the troops are partly for show, I appreciate it must be a difficult balance to strike, taking a tough stance for the benefit of members while at the same time accepting concessions probably need to made.....however I'd like a bit more Gareth Southgate and lot less Sam Allardyce......