FAO Martin Walsh / Dingo

[TheoF95]

Will the clock in & out/ Scan system be introduced within the next 3 months?

[Cucumber]

On average holiday pay it is subject to test cases at the Tribunal. Due to CoVID all tribunal cases have been delayed but we test case dates early next year. Remember if we are successful than this is likely to cost Royal Mail more than the cost of a pay rise each year , hence why they don’t want to reach an agreement as yet.

In terms of the Ron put in terms of what he believes will be in the agreement :

Revisions will be , but 1 in 6 as a standard won’t be.

There won’t be anything on the USO, other than how we try and it protect USO.

There won’t be mention of 300 offices / LAT . However there will be how we move to 24/7 operation.

Nothing on pensions.

The rest you won’t have to long to wait to judge.

In terms of family friendly that is both law and current Royal Mail policy and they are subject to reviews.

Will revisions factor in when an office is working 1 to a van?

[toonshola]

Will these revisions mean an office re-pick of duties?

[aiden01]

On average holiday pay it is subject to test cases at the Tribunal. Due to CoVID all tribunal cases have been delayed but we test case dates early next year. Remember if we are successful than this is likely to cost Royal Mail more than the cost of a pay rise each year , hence why they don’t want to reach an agreement as yet.

In terms of the Ron put in terms of what he believes will be in the agreement :

Revisions will be , but 1 in 6 as a standard won’t be.

There won’t be anything on the USO, other than how we try and it protect USO.

There won’t be mention of 300 offices / LAT . However there will be how we move to 24/7 operation.

Nothing on pensions.

The rest you won’t have to long to wait to judge.

In terms of family friendly that is both law and current Royal Mail policy and they are subject to reviews.

Will revisions factor in when an office is working 1 to a van?

The rest you wont have long to wait to judge ahh think we've been waiting long enough.

[citypostie]

On average holiday pay it is subject to test cases at the Tribunal. Due to CoVID all tribunal cases have been delayed but we test case dates early next year. Remember if we are successful than this is likely to cost Royal Mail more than the cost of a pay rise each year , hence why they don’t want to reach an agreement as yet.

In terms of the Ron put in terms of what he believes will be in the agreement :

Revisions will be , but 1 in 6 as a standard won’t be.

There won’t be anything on the USO, other than how we try and it protect USO.

There won’t be mention of 300 offices / LAT . However there will be how we move to 24/7 operation.

Nothing on pensions.

The rest you won’t have to long to wait to judge.

In terms of family friendly that is both law and current Royal Mail policy and they are subject to reviews.

Will revisions factor in when an office is working 1 to a van?

Be a waste of time, unless they are going to do revisions alot more regularly (10 years ago in my office) , why spend money on a revision based on a temporary measure when they could decide to stop saying it's voluntary to share a van?

[Ren Hoëk]

unless they are going to do revisions alot more regularly

Which is exactly what they want. It's also a very easy concession for the union to agree to.

[clashcityrocker]

On average holiday pay it is subject to test cases at the Tribunal.

Why can't the issue of average holiday pay be resolved by collective bargaining.

[Schiff]

On average holiday pay it is subject to test cases at the Tribunal.

Why can't the issue of average holiday pay be resolved by collective bargaining.

I would imagine that the union's position is that this is a legal requirement. Including it as a bargaining point would suggest some ambiguity.

[Cucumber]

Can I ask again Martin please, in relation to changes that are being proposed in offices/ways of working etc (I'm not looking for specifics), are they being planned as if coronavirus and it's business challenges are no longer an issue or have they been taken into account.

[clashcityrocker]

On average holiday pay it is subject to test cases at the Tribunal.

Why can't the issue of average holiday pay be resolved by collective bargaining.

I would imagine that the union's position is that this is a legal requirement. Including it as a bargaining point would suggest some ambiguity.

Given that Royal Mail have paid some people holiday pay, they clearly accept the validity of the claims.
I don't recall the union advising those people to refuse the offer as it wasn't enough.
What appears to be lacking is agreement over how and when these payments are made.
What does it say about the new relationship if they can't agree over what appears to be an agreed legal requirement?
Meanwhile .......

[antcpfc]

Redundancies?

[Martin Walsh]

Yes COVID has been factored into any agreement. No one knows whether letter traffic will come back to some degree , or whether parcels will drop from 30% up ( more at Christmas ) when we return to some kind of normality.

Additionally what happens to the inner city offices where the government’s work from home policy has massively impacted on their traffic profile. Firms who used to get bags of mail are now getting a handful or bundle. The Mount , W1 ,WC , SW1,Docklands canary Whalf but it will impact on lots more inner city offices. Who knows whether those offices will go back or whether firms will continue to work from home.

So how do you forecast with any certainty.

In terms of revisions the average revision take more than 12 weeks planing and lots take a lot longer. Who knows whether from April we will be back to some normality ?

[postslippete]

Yes COVID has been factored into any agreement. No one knows whether letter traffic will come back to some degree , or whether parcels will drop from 30% up ( more at Christmas ) when we return to some kind of normality.

Additionally what happens to the inner city offices where the government’s work from home policy has massively impacted on their traffic profile. Firms who used to get bags of mail are now getting a handful or bundle. The Mount , W1 ,WC , SW1,Docklands canary Whalf but it will impact on lots more inner city offices. Who knows whether those offices will go back or whether firms will continue to work from home.

So how do you forecast with any certainty.

In terms of revisions the average revision take more than 12 weeks planing and lots take a lot longer. Who knows whether from April we will be back to some normality ?

For my 5 pence worth...there seems to be a lot of pessimistic talk from the Union.


I don't like the idea of a 5 day USO because it means that Monday's workload has not been do-able given the double mail and packets that had been left over from the Saturday. But its all about cutting costs as Royal Mail cannot afford it anymore; they are paying off Rico and these 2,000 chocolate teapot managers, perhaps a few courier staff as well now its a quarterly publication, plus they are investing millions in parcel hubs and automation. So in the short term, there have been a few staff on sick and they have paid a few million on PPE. Will they be still paying this amount of sick pay and PPE next year, now that there is a vaccine. Don't think so, do you?

All Covid19 has done is given Royal Mail managers the perfect excuse to fail walks and save costs. Its given them an opportunity to trial a few things which they know saves them money. Just focus on the tracked items and forget all the other items that customers have paid for like standard parcels and letters as that might go either tomorrow or the day after. Some walks in our office has had 4 or 5 days worth of mail!! Will this really be acceptable when things get back to normality??

[Cucumber]

Yes COVID has been factored into any agreement. No one knows whether letter traffic will come back to some degree , or whether parcels will drop from 30% up ( more at Christmas ) when we return to some kind of normality.

Additionally what happens to the inner city offices where the government’s work from home policy has massively impacted on their traffic profile. Firms who used to get bags of mail are now getting a handful or bundle. The Mount , W1 ,WC , SW1,Docklands canary Whalf but it will impact on lots more inner city offices. Who knows whether those offices will go back or whether firms will continue to work from home.

So how do you forecast with any certainty.

In terms of revisions the average revision take more than 12 weeks planing and lots take a lot longer. Who knows whether from April we will be back to some normality ?

For my 5 pence worth...there seems to be a lot of pessimistic talk from the Union.


I don't like the idea of a 5 day USO because it means that Monday's workload has not been do-able given the double mail and packets that had been left over from the Saturday. But its all about cutting costs as Royal Mail cannot afford it anymore; they are paying off Rico and these 2,000 chocolate teapot managers, perhaps a few courier staff as well now its a quarterly publication, plus they are investing millions in parcel hubs and automation. So in the short term, there have been a few staff on sick and they have paid a few million on PPE. Will they be still paying this amount of sick pay and PPE next year, now that there is a vaccine. Don't think so, do you?

All Covid19 has done is given Royal Mail managers the perfect excuse to fail walks and save costs. Its given them an opportunity to trial a few things which they know saves them money. Just focus on the tracked items and forget all the other items that customers have paid for like standard parcels and letters as that might go either tomorrow or the day after. Some walks in our office has had 4 or 5 days worth of mail!! Will this really be acceptable when things get back to normality??

I agree with a lot of that, but I just don't see what difference having a vaccine is going to make to the operations. Anyone under the age of 55 will be unlikely to get the vaccine, certainly not within the next 12 months. Try selling a return to van share to the masses then. Many offices are stuck in a total rut of duties delivering only tracked, specials then a few bags of mail each day as there just isn't the time. Like you say, when they get round to certain loops at the end of the week, there can be a weeks worth of mail. I remember the arguments we used to have with management about leaving a bag or 2 of mail, no one even cares any more. Any revisions that take place in the next 6 months will fall apart quite quickly without management being willing to actually manage workloads, something they have quite willingly stopped doing this year.

[Woody Guthrie]

Everybody doesn't need to have the vaccine to "return to normal".

In theory once you vaccinate the over 55s and clinically vulnerable you've reduced the risk of serious illness and death to a level no higher than normal flu.

Once you reach that point you run out of arguments against van sharing.