20K buy down wage deal

[PO1]

Well, I guess we're all clued up on the Admin pay deal. Paula Vennels has replied to Andey Furey's letter about the lack of one for us plebs on the counter.

In it she waffles on about the losses in the Crown network currently forecast this year to be£55m and that revenues are continuing to decline. She refers to the BIS document and the commitment to government to be in profit by 2015. She also says "The biggest cost in the Crown network is employee pay and this is one of the areas..... we need to address"

"It is important to recognise that a comparison of the pay of Crown office employees with those people working in franchised and agency post offices shows that Crown pay rates are more than a third higher. Crown employees also earn more than those working in the banking sector where the national pay rates for counter clerks and customer services are around £15k pa in comparison to the Crown pay rate of £19150 pa. These above-market rates are not sustainable.."

For these reasons "There is no alternative than to keep the Crown pay offer for 2010/11 as zero"

The old chestnut about us being the only part of RMG to get a payment in 2009/10 (the fact of a national postal strike seems to have been airbrushed) is repeated. For those who are reading this and don't know the details of the 2007 pay deal (which we had to strike for) we received a £1000 payment in 2007, a small % increase in 2008 (3% rings a bell) and a £1000 payment in 2009. So basically in 4 years our pay has, in real terms gone up by about £60 per month.

In fact, remember the 'Crown Career Path' booklet issued in 2007? That states our salary to be £18,350 ..... we're now on £19,156 so don't be fooled by Paula's claims. Can I ask, how much is she on?

But, I digress from my original post. I’ve received new information, this time from my own union rep and guess what? Amongst proposals in the pipeline:

A buy down of pay, so that £5000 pa may be bought for a lump sum on a voluntary basis. This will create a new rate of pay, which shall be the recruitment rate as well as the rate for the members that took the lump sum. Therefore, a two tier workforce again and a downward pressure on all others’ pay.

The abolishment of tea breaks.

A reduction in the number of full timers.

Branch Managers to be able to instruct members on a day-to-day basis of hours of work (e.g. “It’s a bit quite today, go home now and I’ll have you in another day”)

The pay rise…… it’s just the start of it!

[The BFO]

Branch Managers to be able to instruct members on a day-to-day basis of hours of work (e.g. “It’s a bit quite today, go home now and I’ll have you in another day”)

The thought of my Branch Manager administering this has made me laugh... He can't even cope with Standard Duties.

[kathleen1]

Right now i am getting really angry- ABOLISHMENT OF TEA BREAKS we can't even
have a cup of tea when its freezing cold now, do you think dicky and paula don,t
have a couple of lattes or earl grey in the morning at the expense of POL. I work two
days for 5hours each day so i will just sit there all day serving the queue without
having a cuppa i think not i might die of malnutrition,frostbite, or the sales
culture.Enough is enough the post office is affecting my health,wages,standard of
living and just taking the utter piss out of the postal officers in our crowns,its time to
fight back and vote yes for industrial action lets all stick together we have all worked
very hard in the past decades before dicky and paula even entered a crown office.

[Lounge Lizard]

Right now i am getting really angry- ABOLISHMENT OF TEA BREAKS we can't even
have a cup of tea when its freezing cold now, do you think dicky and paula don,t
have a couple of lattes or earl grey in the morning at the expense of POL. I work two
days for 5hours each day so i will just sit there all day serving the queue without
having a cuppa i think not i might die of malnutrition,frostbite, or the sales
culture.Enough is enough the post office is affecting my health,wages,standard of
living and just taking the utter piss out of the postal officers in our crowns,its time to
fight back and vote yes for industrial action lets all stick together we have all worked
very hard in the past decades before dicky and paula even entered a crown office.

No tea break, freezing cold, frostbite, worked very hard - that's just like a rural delivery during the Christmas Pressure last month.

[whit1cats]

The original info was passed on by a union source. The message was "it was one of the options being considered"

MTSF refers to a buy down of grade policy "where to do so would facilitate the placement of a surplus employee". Not quite the same as what I've heard might be suggested but this part of MTSF goes on to state:

It will involve a variation to the employee's cotract of employment with no break in service.
Be paid a taxable lump sum payment equivalent to two years worth of the difference between the employee's pay immediately prior to the transfer and the pay applicable to the lower graded new job as compensation.
The employee takes up the grade and terms and conditions of the new job immediately.
Upon termination of employment for any reason whatsoever, or on promotion, during the two years immediately following the payment you will refund a proportion of the payment back equivalent to the unexpired portion of the compensation period. Any monies owing in this respect may be deducted from your wages or any other payment from the RMG including VR.

If it does appear in your mailbox if you do, think of only one thing, pension. 26/80 of my pension is a final salary payment currently this part £6230 per year with a lump sum of £18690. If it goes down to £12,000 salary that becomes £3,690 per year and £11,700. Massive difference. Short term gain long term pain.
In the words of Grange Hill "Just say No"

The 15K or 20K is a carrot on a stick, they know people are struggling. so many partners out of work, v.a.t fuel cost etc, they are not as stupid as they look...there are going to be a lot of people interested or desperated enough to take advantage of a lump sum... what they will forget is the future years on 12K. We have to make the message loud and clear dont fall for this underhand way of cutting our colleagues annual wage...can you imagin working the way we do, on just over 12K ayear????? During the last strike po's did not get much out of it, but we brought the whole Post office back to one pay structure. POL HQ are going to make it a two level pay structure again...can you imagin someone who has taken the bait and a few years later just picking up 12K a year working as hard as the colleague next to them....We cant allow it to happen...They are also trying to attack our terms and conditions, if they had their way we would have reduced tea breaks or have them unpaid, managers writing up duties on a week to week basis......and forget VR!!! all Crown sold off, the staff will be TUPE over....i forcast no VR packages, TUPE or sod off.......We have to vote YES to industrial action and we have to get those 'sit on the fence' staff out on the picket lines, there are too many staff who have the attitued of 'one out all out' or 'one no to strike, noone strikes'...DO YOU WANT THIS FUTURE FOR THE PO??? IF NOT PROVE IT AND STICK WITH EVERYONE ELSE AND STRIKE....show them bullying MD's we are not to be messed around with