Summer Resourcing : Resourcing to Workload LTB

[janitor]

I'd like to recommend him for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

[chrisj]

If only people will work to their time... Whichever way we look at things, we have to have contractual hours of work - it can be slightly flexible but not much more. Or is dingo saying that we should now look forward to annualised hours or sometime akin to zero-contract hours???

Bullying and harassment is not just about being coerced into working over one's contractual time - there is a lot of ways that a manager can be bullying or harassing his workforce. Attitude, crudeness, rudeness, belittling, bad-mouthing, unfairness, favoritism, unnecessary monitoring, shouting, standing over people and so on can constitutes aspects of bullying.

Having said the above, it is true that mail volumes and work is slightly down; it is fairly evident most days, these days.

PDA can easily be used to monitor delivery span, there is no problem with that and the data should be fairly good where posties, take breaks, use recommended equipments, take health and safety precautions and not take short cuts.

I thought the CWU and some of their commenters said PDA will not be used to monitor... Really?

[dvbuk55]

I thought the CWU and some of their commenters said PDA will not be used to monitor... Really?

No not really, once they are in the agreements will be enforced - like work every hour you are paid and lurking in the background banked hours et al. They want to enforce the use of PDAs because it suits them but not the use of the LWTs which is a part of the weight off the shoulder agreement but do we hear the likes of the CWU trying to enforce that - of course not, what we hear is a diatribe about footsie 100, shareholder pressure, competition etc.
FFS Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury and M&S all deal with competition and RM are going to have to tailor their services to adjust BUT they don't need the CWU to help them because that's NOT their job.

[hans solo]

Fish the primary reasons for the PDA is the facility it provides for information for customers and the business communications with the OPG on route.

The job is going to change , Royal Mail are scoping the amount of collection boxes which can be collect by a OPG on his route rather then a van , they estimate it as over 20 000 , the returns business is growing and very competitive and worth millions , an opg goes to or past every door every day so it's market which is there.

Tracked items increased by 54% last year , this year it's over 24% , customers want tracked items.

Click and collect to enquiry counters and post offices are real opportunites hence why some callers / enquiry officers will be opening on a Sunday.

Mail volumes on letters are down and on 5 years ago and this is despite the fact that d2d is included in today's traffic and not in the figures of 5 years ago. 80% of all traffic is counted by machines and checked.

DSA accounts for over 4 billion items which less then 10 years ago Royal Mail did not have any work lost to DSA.

Royal Mail have 50% of the parcels market but it is not coverd by the USO and is very competitive and changeable. The growth a few years ago were DVDs and CDs , now most of that has changed to downloads and the growth is clothes and bigger parcels.

Amazon are now buying courier companies in areas to deliver their parcels as they want total control but they will also use Royal Mail when capicity demands or circumstances such as bad weather.

D2D has grown but less then predicted due to the fact that Royal Mail are 20% on average more expensive then TNT.

TNT will cover 42.2% addresses in the uk by 2016 but in only 8% of the total UK. The cities are Edinburgh , Glasgow , Leeds , Manchester , London , the Home Counties including Essex , Bristol. They are averaging taking 20% of Mail in the first year.

Now PDA tracking of OPGs is not the most important issue at the moment. The agreement says it cannot be used for conduct code purposes , budgets cannot be used , no one should be forced to work beyond their time and the PDA will show if someone has been which will prove if bullying is occurring.

Now against this backdrop and the fact that off comm is threatening to impose efficiency levels on the business , the CWU has a range of problems to deal with probably the biggest in its history.

Some of you might choose to continue to close your eyes to the problems by saying well we work to time , the issue is this really true and if Royal Mail continue to lose revenue to TNT how long will the USO survive ? There will always be post in cities but in rurals no way.

The CWU could see the bigger picture and that's why it has secured the Agenda for Growth and has shaped and welcome today's announcement. The CWU has argued Royal Mail workforce is hugely efficient due to the changes.

What the CWU do not have is a veto on change. Royal Mail as a footsie 100 company is also under pressure from it shareholders to raise more profit.

bet you believe all that pish as well

[TrueBlueTerrier]

no one should be forced to work beyond their time and the PDA will show if someone has been which will prove if bullying is occurring.

Really, I haven't see the parameters that would do this, or the agreement to back it up. The CWU can't expect nirvanha all the time, and be surprised when reality hits a poor OPG in the face.

A bullying manager will bully, we need to get rid of them, and the culture of B&H in RM still needs addressing but as sure as eggs are eggs the PDA won't stop bullying and it won't stop people being forced to work over. It might make it easier to prove they were bullied, but the problem is that the B&H and Grievances procedures are no longer trusted by OPGs, and are not fit for purpose. To make it worse with the Coalition's attack on ET its less likely that an ordinary worker in Royal Mail will even put a grievance in knowing that if they want to push it further they'll have to have £1200 to spare just in case.

[clashcityrocker]

bet you believe all that pish as well

Which bits don't you believe and why?

[Danelectro]

bet you believe all that pish as well

Which bits don't you believe and why?

whats there to 'beleive'.I remember being told to believe that if we went on strike during xmas pressure that Royal mail would lose the Amazon contract and now guess what

Dingos rant just outlines the race to the bottom that Billy Hayes banged on about for a decade or two.Until the regulator decides how its possible to defend the uso and increase competition in the uks postal sector it seems the only option open to Royal Mail to defend its profit margins is not to win back any contracts or create new products or 'grow' but to squeeze more efficiency out of its delivery offices.Talk of defending jobs in this kind of mess is misleading and cheap.

[Martin Walsh]

TBT it is fairly simple the PDA will show and does show the time someone finishes so if they are scheduled to finish at 3 and the PDA say they actually finish at 4 and the OPG say he is being forced to work beyond his or her time for no remuneration then you will be able to check the PDA and psp and put this to the manager.

This site suggests that we have bullying going on in every office and yet when the CWU asked me to come forward we had just over a thousand responses , a 1000 too many but not the tens of thousand some on here would predict.

One of the reasons I first became a local rep was I hate bullies and I have always hated managers who do this. However lets be clear in this if I witnessed bullying as a local rep or a OPG the first thing I would do is get the membership to walk into the canteen or the gate. I would not allow it too happen , when I hear examples now as a more senior rep I try and get it stopped and if management don't listen I ask the Branch to get the local unit balloted.

This is the only way to stop bullies expose them. Don't just moan about it organise and don't tolerate them.

[dvbuk55]

However lets be clear in this if I witnessed bullying as a local rep or a OPG the first thing I would do is get the membership to walk into the canteen or the gate. I would not allow it too happen .

Now how would you go about combatting the harassment and bullying when those people are NOT union members and only 55% of the workforce ARE members? That is where rhetoric rears its ugly head isn't it - you can only do what you say when you have the organisation to achieve it - if you haven't it's just talk.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

TBT it is fairly simple the PDA will show and does show the time someone finishes so if they are scheduled to finish at 3 and the PDA say they actually finish at 4 and the OPG say he is being forced to work beyond his or her time for no remuneration then you will be able to check the PDA and psp and put this to the manager.

But the member/postie still has to stand up and say I am being bullied for this to work as you say. The PDA won't stop bullying, it will however help prove that there may be a case to answer.

People who are being bullied just want a quiet life and to make any inroads we need to recognise that rather than wait for them to either crack or put their heads above the parapet.

This site suggests that we have bullying going on in every office and yet when the CWU asked me to come forward we had just over a thousand responses , a 1000 too many but not the tens of thousand some on here would predict.

1000 out of 1500 offices is a very poor result but about what I expected. If the Union don't think there is a massive problem based on the numbers who were brave enough to declare themselves, rather than take into consideration the hidden numbers, then I am a more than a little concerned that they don't understand the severity of the problem.

One of the reasons I first became a local rep was I hate bullies and I have always hated managers who do this. However lets be clear in this if I witnessed bullying as a local rep or a OPG the first thing I would do is get the membership to walk into the canteen or the gate. I would not allow it too happen , when I hear examples now as a more senior rep I try and get it stopped and if management don't listen I ask the Branch to get the local unit balloted.

This is the only way to stop bullies expose them. Don't just moan about it organise and don't tolerate them.

Thats all good an well and I agree with your stance on visible bullying and applaud the Unions actions in cases I have been involved with. However, what about the hidden bullying, the quite word on delivery, the come into my office, the "its a performance issue" all the low level stuff which goes on behind closed doors and out of site. Thats the culture we need to tackle. Thats also the reason why the B&H and grievance procedure are seen by a lot of members as a flawed system.

The Union and Royal Mail need to get "specialists" to come in and get the culture changed, and try and get the B&H and Grievance system back on track and get some measure of trust into it from the Posties.

[jack]

The Union and Royal Mail need to get "specialists" to come in and get the culture changed, and try and get the B&H and Grievance system back on track and get some measure of trust into it from the Posties.

I do think that's the only way to fix the B&H culture within management.

I know for a fact everyone hates our DOM because of the blatant bullying that's dished out when it comes to making people absorb. People have told me they don't want to absorb past their contracted hours for free but feel obliged to because they are made to feel that way, and could do without the daily hassle off the DOM because folk just simply want to come to work stress free

Seriously 7 to 8 walks are absorbed in our office and out of them walks I would say 5 are absorbed by people who go over their time and do it for free..yes fcukin free.... that's five jobs that could be filled. But the DOM gets it all done for free through intimidation... is there any wonder the horrible bastard (who everyone hates) is still walking the corridors, the hierarchy must love it. But the irony of it all is the poor fcukers who do stand up to the DOM get questioned to why they are not absorbing when the rest of the office is, and I'm all for working your contracted hours.

This is why I think specialist intervention is needed as well to cut all the B&H s**t out for good.

[beezet]

i agree with you dvbuk55, how can anybody finish 3hrs early , they need to come to our offices and see what a days work is like, they must be when they get their payslip.

[music4essex]

[quote] This is the only way to stop bullies expose them. Don't just moan about it organise and don't tolerate them.


Yes Excactly what I did for 3yrs kept a diary , but the system is flawed when RM Procedure's are not adhered too, by Royal mail , or be told that there is not a case to be answered for, but not by Royal mail , but by the mediator, not how you are meant to be told , I have no faith in royal mail or its procedure's.

I work my hours , so pda will have no problems in watching me

Essex mum

[toonslayer7]

TBT based on your logic I will do a delivery , then become an CSS operator , then do the job of a cleaner , then get in a van and become a Cit driver , then cook for Quadrant , then work in an RDC , then become an admin work , then work in processing , before becoming a collection driver and then overnight I will drive an ARTIC.

These are the responsibilities of most divisional reps so when would we possibly have time to do union role.

Full time reps are not the problem bad reps are.

There is a sure way of getting rid of a bad rep and that is an election.

Dingo, on the whole i have always appreciated your informative posts and answers to the myriad of questions which are thrown at you personally and those that you answer irrespective on this site, especially in view of how the business and its' associated cultures have changed in the past few months,but your statement above about 'bad reps' is way off of the mark. There will always be an element of reps who are concerned purely for themselves and will find themselves increasingly under pressure to actually do the job they were voted in for as we move forward and i have no doubt, some will fall by the wayside. However, there is also a huge element of increasingly disillusioned reps who took on their roles for the right reasons and this needs addressing. The reason for is simple - piss poor information on what IS happening or being proposed by the upper echelons. You can spout all you want about seeing this PDA information first hand and the like, but that is exactly the point - us mere mortal reps DON'T, and this shows just how much you and other div reps, etc, value yourself over all the other reps. An LTB is simply not good enough, training which is provided is not good enough. I have not seen my Div rep in over two years except at conference so how much is he really doing. I have had repeated requests from my area rep to aid with stage three disagreements and dismissals because i am good at my job and he is getting no support from anyone when he needs it. ALL reps if they were doing their jobs to the standard they should be need more release time, information and help. Working together with RM is something that can never be fully achieved and something which i do not always like doing but it is here to stay, so get it right in your own house first to help your reps. You may be experienced and have a clear view on where the business is going and i am sure you are doing things for the right reasons, but there are many " experienced " reps who could not give a f**k and this is your serious problem. How can a rep on the floor be any good, even if he wants to if he gets f**k all help from those above him who are more interested in their own survival than the interests of those that they are there to represent. Cloak and dagger stuff was once the domain of RM management, now the general consensus is that the Union " management " are up to it as well and your previous statement just gives more reasons to believe exactly that.

[hans solo]

TBT it is fairly simple the PDA will show and does show the time someone finishes so if they are scheduled to finish at 3 and the PDA say they actually finish at 4 and the OPG say he is being forced to work beyond his or her time for no remuneration then you will be able to check the PDA and psp and put this to the manager.

This site suggests that we have bullying going on in every office and yet when the CWU asked me to come forward we had just over a thousand responses , a 1000 too many but not the tens of thousand some on here would predict.

One of the reasons I first became a local rep was I hate bullies and I have always hated managers who do this. However lets be clear in this if I witnessed bullying as a local rep or a OPG the first thing I would do is get the membership to walk into the canteen or the gate. I would not allow it too happen , when I hear examples now as a more senior rep I try and get it stopped and if management don't listen I ask the Branch to get the local unit balloted.

This is the only way to stop bullies expose them. Don't just moan about it organise and don't tolerate them.

walk into canteen or the gate is not allowed anymore in cwu,s wonderful joint agreement with rm
you have to follow procedures now ie,,,,, no strike threat, mediation
going to gate or canteen would be viewed as poss industrial action
oh and the pda will be used to show opg is being deliberately slow fact
and as means to discipline opg with errors
they now use them to time opg routes and manipulate actual times by dictating made up traffic volumes so as not to set realistic targets
make it up as they go along with cwu blessing