AND increase chances of long term ill-health with knees+hips+back+shoulder+ankles+feet - we posties are our own worse enemies and THIS is one of the reasons why historically our unskilled jobs have paid significantly more than minimum pay level wages. This is being severely eroded now - especially for new starters. We are paid more to compensate for the increased suffering as the years go by. All union members should have this forefront of their minds when considering pay disputes.
True, we get paid better than a parcel driver for hermes....but we must walk a hell of a lot further, typically with a bag on our shoulder, even putting letters through stiff letterboxes or ones that are too low or high puts strain on the body.....
The Royal Mail shoes aren't comfortable enough that I pay out over £100 a year on shoes.
Pay for the odd massage to relieve my muscles - £70 a go.
Have had issues that needed physio/treatment at a cost of £400.
Purchased medications and various types of supports/heat pads etc to aid recovery - another £100.
Then who knows what the long term consequences and costs of doing such a physical job will be.
It is true I’ve got foot and hip problems with over 30 years service. When your younger you don’t think about the consequences just the money. Now I’m trying to get I’ll health retirement.
you don't know the consequences. But what you do know, without doubt [look at older colleagues] is that there most certainly is an increased risk.
In all walks of life, think combat sport, mercenaries, north sea oil workers, commercial divers - people are better rewarded when there is increased risk of detrimental health outcomes.
In similar scenarios the government puts a health warning on the side of the packet
You have spent a lot. I think some of that could be a tax write off
AND increase chances of long term ill-health with knees+hips+back+shoulder+ankles+feet - we posties are our own worse enemies and THIS is one of the reasons why historically our unskilled jobs have paid significantly more than minimum pay level wages. This is being severely eroded now - especially for new starters. We are paid more to compensate for the increased suffering as the years go by. All union members should have this forefront of their minds when considering pay disputes.
True, we get paid better than a parcel driver for hermes....but we must walk a hell of a lot further, typically with a bag on our shoulder, even putting letters through stiff letterboxes or ones that are too low or high puts strain on the body.....
The Royal Mail shoes aren't comfortable enough that I pay out over £100 a year on shoes.
Pay for the odd massage to relieve my muscles - £70 a go.
Have had issues that needed physio/treatment at a cost of £400.
Purchased medications and various types of supports/heat pads etc to aid recovery - another £100.
Then who knows what the long term consequences and costs of doing such a physical job will be.
What kind of massages have you been getting for £70
It is true I’ve got foot and hip problems with over 30 years service. When your younger you don’t think about the consequences just the money. Now I’m trying to get I’ll health retirement.
Have you thought about suing the company?
RM’s health & safety record is notoriously bad and I think they’d find it very hard to defend against.
I even think that’s probably why the ill health retirement terms are/were, from what I understand, reasonable - to dissuade people from taking legal action.
It is true I’ve got foot and hip problems with over 30 years service. When your younger you don’t think about the consequences just the money. Now I’m trying to get I’ll health retirement.
Have you thought about suing the company?
RM’s health & safety record is notoriously bad and I think they’d find it very hard to defend against.
I even think that’s probably why the ill health retirement terms are/were, from what I understand, reasonable - to dissuade people from taking legal action.
It has a cluse in it so you don't get a pay out twice but if you don't get IHR you could try sue them but they have your own signatures on everything and the SSOW book which they will throw at the judge! So good luck on that one.
I think people miss the point of shorter weeking weeks. The idea behind them is to make people more productive, making it cost neutral or even of a cost benefit to the company. Happier people, better work life balance ect make people more productive. The idea was never just to replace the lost hours with extra staff. In our case it was slightly different, because there was a belief automation would be taking virtually all the indoor work away. So as oppose to laying staff off and losing hours, Royal Mail would allow staff to work slightly less. It makes sense, but automation hasn't took over so therefore it isn't viable currently at least.
To be honest - I don't know how people can be more productive over 4 days rather than 5, but the trials they have had in the UK have proven it works...
In terms of being a postie... you would be less exhausted, less likely to have health issues, more likely to come in and complete your round, less likely to quit, happier.
And a 4 day working week could work for both Royal Mail and the staff if the government allowed a 4 day postal service. Royal Mail would just have to work out how they are going to fill in the other 3 days of parcel deliveries. Maybe with a mixture of posties doing overtime, agency and permanent employees of a 4 day week - 3 days working on the parcel only days and 1 day helping out in the office while the posties are in delivering parcels or filling in for absentees.
Anyhow - the government aren't going to allow a 4 day letter service and Royal Mail would prefer to pay us 1 days pay for 7 days work, not 5 days pay for 4 days work.
The whole reason a four day week is controversial is exactly because it couldn't work in industries like ours. Or nursing, school teachers or any other profession really that requires a physical presence somewhere. It's more suited to white collar roles, which, not exclusively, but more often than not are paid better than the likes of us. It's why no government would ever mandate it. To be honest though, many companies that can do, already offer a more flexible working pattern post covid. My wife rarely does five days, because she'll make sure her work is covered over four days and may make a token appearance for an or hour so on a Friday. Her company are fine with it, and most companies now know such flexibility is expected so they need to offer it to secure decent candidates.
