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Query re; cancelled shifts

An 'unofficial' forum for those who either work for Royal Mail or are looking to work for Royal Mail through the Angard Staffing Agency.This is an open forum.
mrgund
Posts: 16
Joined: 25 Apr 2014, 19:24
Gender: Male

Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by mrgund »

After booking in only yesterday for 5 days next week I received a text this morning saying that two of the shifts had been cancelled, sorry for the inconvenience, blah, blah.

I understand that's perhaps the nature of the beast with agency/zero hours contracts and I accept that and will plod on, but I just thought I'd ask if anyone on here has any experience of how often this happens with the cancelling of shifts? Just curious, so to speak. Been doing this 4 weeks now and had 4 or 5 days in each of those weeks so this is the first time I have seen this happen.

Thanks for any insight. :coolr
sabb786
Posts: 12
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 17:12
Gender: Female
Location: northwest

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by sabb786 »

Hi, welcome to zero hours contract. I heard rmg are try to get rid off agency workers slowly slowly. bcs of overheads
ennabee
Posts: 290
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 10:56
Gender: Male

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by ennabee »

mrgund wrote:After booking in only yesterday for 5 days next week I received a text this morning saying that two of the shifts had been cancelled, sorry for the inconvenience, blah, blah.

I understand that's perhaps the nature of the beast with agency/zero hours contracts and I accept that and will plod on, but I just thought I'd ask if anyone on here has any experience of how often this happens with the cancelling of shifts? Just curious, so to speak. Been doing this 4 weeks now and had 4 or 5 days in each of those weeks so this is the first time I have seen this happen.

Thanks for any insight. :coolr
We used to get block bookings at our place (and there were a few cancelled,) now we tend to get called at short notice, but checking back over the past two years it's about the same number of hours, just harder to plan ahead.
mrgund
Posts: 16
Joined: 25 Apr 2014, 19:24
Gender: Male

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by mrgund »

Thanks for the replies. As it turned out, on the days I went in I got asked to stop 4 hours extra on each shift, thus making up the hours from the missed shifts. So not so bad after all.
dazg
Posts: 43
Joined: 05 Jan 2014, 02:12
Gender: Male
Location: LL area

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by dazg »

Scuttlebutt says that june is slow and july and august are pretty much dead. Nobody is in front of their computers buying from the interweb, they are all charring meat products in the garden, getting salmonella poisoning from undercooked chicken and recovering in bed for a week, etc etc. I walked in to our mail centre at 10pm last night and the usual noise was not there. I went to sign in, glanced at the 6 - 10pm sheet and there were maybe 25 Angard names on it. Usually on that shift i see 3 times that amount.

A postie from the local DO told me in the summer they have to share 3 walks between two vans as there is just not the level of mail being sent in the warmer months.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
SpacePhoenix
MAIL CENTRES/PROCESSING
Posts: 12134
Joined: 12 Nov 2008, 17:03
Gender: Male

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by SpacePhoenix »

June, July and probably first half of August are the quietest times of the year. It'll probably pick up again around mid August when college and uni students start buying their supplies like text books, etc for the new academic year and it'll be quite busy the August Bank Holiday week.
ennabee
Posts: 290
Joined: 19 Oct 2011, 10:56
Gender: Male

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by ennabee »

dazg wrote:. I went to sign in, glanced at the 6 - 10pm sheet and there were maybe 25 Angard names on it. Usually on that shift i see 3 times that amount.

.
75 casuals! What MC do you work at if you don't mind me asking

..............................................................................
mrgund
Posts: 16
Joined: 25 Apr 2014, 19:24
Gender: Male

Re: Query re; cancelled shifts

Post by mrgund »

SpacePhoenix wrote:June, July and probably first half of August are the quietest times of the year. It'll probably pick up again around mid August when college and uni students start buying their supplies like text books, etc for the new academic year and it'll be quite busy the August Bank Holiday week.
Somebody was saying this today. He said get ready for September to Christmas and take whatever shifts you are offered in the meantime. Although I did 34 hours last week so not too bad. 18 hours the week before.