CURRENTLY TRIALLING DM26 HCT’s

[Shaugi]

We're going live in about 2 weeks...so far the office hasn't been told any of the new duty set ups cos the planner is still working on them.

I'm hoping that nobody wants an HCT duty cos I like having mine.

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

[monkeybuisness]

HCT's are meant to be doing 50/50.

They take everything for half of their duty and the other half only tracked and 1st class.

Then it is up to management how the remainder of your delivery time is spent. Some offices are dividing another HCT duty up and dividing it between the other HCT duties. For example dividing it between three HCT duties so you each take a third.

Others are scrapping HCT's all together and making them van shares.

Others are giving them tracked and 1st from duties that are nearby their duties as relief.

The only thing that is concrete is that if you are still on a HCT you should only be doing 50/50. With later finish times and not having to walk up every garden path it gives you more time to do more workload.

As I’ve stated previously above this is what we’re doing but say for example when you take a 1/3 of the dissolved duty after you’ve finished your own duty first class and tracked which on average, 20 first class letters minimum and 30/40 tracked walking with the HCT takes a lot of time. I know what I’m going to say now I’m talking myself out of a ( HCT duty ) but if done in a van you’d absolutely destroy what the extra work entailed instead of the 1000’s of extra steps and hours extra walking round just to do the 1/3 extra on the designated duty.

[Barnacle]

HCT's are meant to be doing 50/50.

They take everything for half of their duty and the other half only tracked and 1st class.

Then it is up to management how the remainder of your delivery time is spent. Some offices are dividing another HCT duty up and dividing it between the other HCT duties. For example dividing it between three HCT duties so you each take a third.

Others are scrapping HCT's all together and making them van shares.

Others are giving them tracked and 1st from duties that are nearby their duties as relief.

The only thing that is concrete is that if you are still on a HCT you should only be doing 50/50. With later finish times and not having to walk up every garden path it gives you more time to do more workload.

As I’ve stated previously above this is what we’re doing but say for example when you take a 1/3 of the dissolved duty after you’ve finished your own duty first class and tracked which on average, 20 first class letters minimum and 30/40 tracked walking with the HCT takes a lot of time. I know what I’m going to say now I’m talking myself out of a ( HCT duty ) but if done in a van you’d absolutely destroy what the extra work entailed instead of the 1000’s of extra steps and hours extra walking round just to do the 1/3 extra on the designated duty.

RM don’t want to be providing more vans everywhere so there’s a limit to how many HCT jobs will be converted to a van share.

It’s ludicrous to make a HCT work DM26 the same as a van postie

[TopperGas]

I've no idea what a van costs to run each year but surely any savings made in staffing costs would be almost be wiped out by replacing an HCT duty with a van duty? There's also the issue that some DO's simply can't take anymore vans overnight

[norris9]

There's 2 issues with HTC duties:

1. HTC duties are killer - you walk a long distance pushing a large HTC trolley. So with the longer days now that many offices are going to 2 in 5 - getting HTC workers to walk for another 30 to 60 minutes is insanity.

2. HTCs can only hold a certain amount of mail/parcels and you tend to get out 30 to 40 minutes before van share workers.... which means you finish your delivery early.

Resolution:

I personally feel HTC duties should either be part time only or the people doing HTC duties should be sorting IPS or parcels with nobody prepping their round as they don't need to be out early - they can start prepping their frame later in the morning. The sorting gets done earlier and the HTC worker works to their time without walking ridiculous mileage.

[reddevils]

There's 2 issues with HTC duties:

1. HTC duties are killer - you walk a long distance pushing a large HTC trolley. So with the longer days now that many offices are going to 2 in 5 - getting HTC workers to walk for another 30 to 60 minutes is insanity.

2. HTCs can only hold a certain amount of mail/parcels and you tend to get out 30 to 40 minutes before van share workers.... which means you finish your delivery early.

Resolution:

I personally feel HTC duties should either be part time only or the people doing HTC duties should be sorting IPS or parcels with nobody prepping their round as they don't need to be out early - they can start prepping their frame later in the morning. The sorting gets done earlier and the HTC worker works to their time without walking ridiculous mileage.

It depends on the HCT duty. Some HCT duties are the best in the office. There are many van shares that walk much more distance than a HCT. So this isn't universal in Royal Mail.

If you are on a HCT duty and full time you should either be prepping another duty alongside your own or helping on IPS and parcel sorting. I thought this would be obvious.

But under DM26 you will be prepping your walk, helping on IPS and sorting and taking a third of another duty just like everybody else.

[goldy2007]

We are doing obviously a different format to shared vans but still based on heavy & light days ( even though the mail is still coming in as before, not through the algorithm)
Day 1 : your own duty tracked / first class ( half of delivery )
: rest of delivery everything goes ( other half )
: 1/3 dissolved duty ( everything goes )
: half of all D2D’s to be thrown in
Day 2 : reverse of your duty you did day before
: 1/3 dissolved duty ( everything goes )
: finish D2D’s

Saturday : All tracked and first class

This is the same version we are using in an a singleton vans office all rural doing wallington 2-5

Except on some sat ( not sure how many that will be yet ) we will have too many off

and remaining staff will go tracked and 1st class and specials etc on 1.5 rural rounds

[pinstripe]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

[Clappedoutpostie]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

That’s not part of the agreement, they will have u in earlier in the day to make up your hours to 40.

[Shaugi]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

I don't think you are remembering that correctly. It's the first I've heard of it.

The agreement was that no new hires would be on 40 hr contracts, they'd all have 37hr contracts.
Oh and the 1.25x OT rate would be removed....and this is (of course) a major win for the union and a big step towards equalisation.
All they did was remove the only bonus we had on the 40hr contract.

[TopperGas]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

That’s not part of the agreement, they will have u in earlier in the day to make up your hours to 40.

Agreed the only option agreed was that those on 40 hrs could reduce their hours to 37 with the resulting loss of 3 hrs pay.

Although how RM works probably somebody will post sooner or later they are either being allowed to leave work 30 mins or so early each day, or have to sit in the DO for that length of time when they get back.

[pinstripe]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

That’s not part of the agreement, they will have u in earlier in the day to make up your hours to 40.

Agreed the only option agreed was that those on 40 hrs could reduce their hours to 37 with the resulting loss of 3 hrs pay.

Although how RM works probably somebody will post sooner or later they are either being allowed to leave work 30 mins or so early each day, or have to sit in the DO for that length of time when they get back.

Taken from The CWU website:
“ I am a new entrant full-time worker, will my hours/pay go down?

No. Royal Mail has agreed to end the practice of hiring full-time workers on 40 hours per week. From 1/6/26, all full-time new starters joining Royal Mail after this date will be on 37 hours a week. Those employed before the 1st of June 2026 will still be on their existing hours. This is an important step towards equalising terms for new entrants.

If you are a new entrant (joined after Dec 2022) and on a full-time contract at 38/39/40 hours, our aim as part of the wider review is to reduce your hours to 37 hours, with no loss of pay.

For part-time new entrants, you will have an opportunity to increase your hours in the near future. Royal Mail has agreed to bring the average hours for part-time new entrants from 31 hours to 35 hours. ”

[qwerty2]

Am also waiting to be told I'll have to drop hours from 40 to 37, in which case I'll be handing in my notice as I'm barely surviving financially on 40 now our overtime rate is f****d.

IIRC, that was part of the deal agreed. New starts on 40 hours would have their hours cut to 37, with no loss of wages. You still get paid the same amount, you just work 3 hours less.

About the only thing in the agreement that was any good.

That’s not part of the agreement, they will have u in earlier in the day to make up your hours to 40.

Agreed the only option agreed was that those on 40 hrs could reduce their hours to 37 with the resulting loss of 3 hrs pay.

Although how RM works probably somebody will post sooner or later they are either being allowed to leave work 30 mins or so early each day, or have to sit in the DO for that length of time when they get back.

Taken from The CWU website:
“ I am a new entrant full-time worker, will my hours/pay go down?

No. Royal Mail has agreed to end the practice of hiring full-time workers on 40 hours per week. From 1/6/26, all full-time new starters joining Royal Mail after this date will be on 37 hours a week. Those employed before the 1st of June 2026 will still be on their existing hours. This is an important step towards equalising terms for new entrants.

If you are a new entrant (joined after Dec 2022) and on a full-time contract at 38/39/40 hours, our aim as part of the wider review is to reduce your hours to 37 hours, with no loss of pay.

For part-time new entrants, you will have an opportunity to increase your hours in the near future. Royal Mail has agreed to bring the average hours for part-time new entrants from 31 hours to 35 hours. ”

Thought all FT were going down to 35 hrs. - Has it been dropped?

[pinstripe]

Thought all FT were going down to 35 hrs. - Has it been dropped?

Most likely, there hasn’t been movement on that for a few years now.

[Shaugi]

Wider review....which will be given a new review date. Then at that date it will be given a further deadline for review ad infinitum until all the 40hr get pissed off and quit.

Union is a joke.

In other news we've been told there will be NO HCT duties once DM26 is implemented. which doesn't fair well for the guy thats got a OHT thing to say he can't work in vans.
He's been told he'll need a review by OHT