Delivering What Exactly?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.newweather.org/delivering-what-exactly/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I had just finished reading the wonderful second volume of Alan Johnson’s autobiography, Please Mr Postman, when an advert popped up on the computer for a company called Doddle.

Doddle joins Yodel and Whistl, other delivery companies with babyish names, which are competing in the overcrowded and exploitative market that comprises the ‘opening up to competition’ of the mail market over the last nine years.

Their compatriot, City Link- a dull name if a ropey enterprise- famously dropped out of the mail market on Christmas Eve, leaving around 2,ooo employees jobless and way behind the financiers backing the company in the queue for monies owed.

The contrast with ALan Johnson’s experience could not be more marked. Johnson joined the GPO, as Royal Mail was in the 1970s, as a postman in Barnes and then in Slough. He was trained. He was securely employed. He was part of a public service.(He spent two weeks -TWO WEEKS!- at Bletchley Park learning about security when he became a Postman Higher Grade, enabled to handle sensitive mail). Along the way he raised a family, became a figure in the union, understood how his country worked, became an MP. Then Home Secretary. None of this can be separated from the fact that he was part of an institution which in turn nurtured the broader British society.

Let us turn now to Nick Wells, the CEO of Whistl( as was TNT). He told a Commons select committee in November that half his staff were on zero hours contracts. The basic pay was the minimum wage , for those on a wage. All employees are entitled to holiday pay. But this does not apply to the self employed, of whom the new postal delivery and communications industry has 31,000 people.

http://data.parliament.uk/writteneviden ... 16818.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The excellent Communication Workers Union says that there are widespread problems with low pay in the sector -in particular, bogus self-employment. A lot of parcel delivery people are employed on a packet/piece rate – around 45p for each delivery made – rather than a contract with hourly pay. A lot of City Link workers were employed on that basis. Amazon, DPD and other couriers use this structure also. If a parcel can’t be delivered, the driver(who is renting her own van) isn’t paid until it is delivered. Which would explain those parcels that allegedly turn up in gardens and behind fences.

This is all very different to the case in Royal Mail where the vast majority of workers are full time, on permanent contracts and paid salaries far in excess of the NMW. Equal pay is applied to agency workers after a 12 week period as per the equal treatment legislation – something which is very difficult in other companies because of job descriptions and the sheer number of rubbish contracts.

The service people receive is categorically not better than that provided by Royal Mail in its heyday- that is before it was forced by Government to cut its sorting offices, cut its collection points, cut its staff and hand over some of its services to competitors like the above. The people who now deliver to more and more homes in the cities- these new companies are definitely not interested in the Universal Delivery model - are appallingly paid, hardly trained, working in jobs which have no career structure to speak of.

So in what way is the open market, which we were forced to have by a combination of zealous British Governments and a corporate set of European directives, better for the customer than the publicly owned delivery service which was the Royal Mail? The service in general is more random and unreliable, jobs are worse, the collection points are fewer, the public good is non existent.

As I said, delivering what, exactly?

[borders]

great article , and I think many people on here envisaged that's the way our industry would/wil go after Privatisation . its all very well for people like Chrisj to harp on about competition blah blah blah and the need to buck up but it really is a race to the bottom for the workers and I think everyone can see the chipping away on every level that is happening in RM today.

[aposter]

This is all very different to the case in Royal Mail where the vast majority of workers are full time, on permanent contracts


Don't make me laff

[chrisj]

great article , and I think many people on here envisaged that's the way our industry would/wil go after Privatisation . its all very well for people like Chrisj to harp on about competition blah blah blah and the need to buck up but it really is a race to the bottom for the workers and I think everyone can see the chipping away on every level that is happening in RM today.

Just to confirm that I do know that it is a race to the bottom. At least I am up-front about it and the reasons why. We simply cannot continue to be paid more than our rivals in a liberal open industry and we cannot continue to carry people or have jobs just because...

It is the reality of life in a privatised industry and a market economy. For example, why are the people in MC doing the most mundane tasks getting paid the same as delivery staff? It does not make economic sense and why are the most inflexible workers in some delivery offices having easy walks and other fringe benefits or generally an easier life than the most versatile.

I do not want a race to the bottom but when people were signing up to this and that and believing in the Union spew, some of us were already giving folks a note of caution. Having an unsustainable pay increase and protected T&C will only hasten the race to the bottom; but people did not see it that way, did they?

So what can we do to stop Royal Mail operating like a proper* business in a tough competitive and declining industry?

Proper in this context does not necessarily mean ethical or socially beneficial.

* You all want to keep your job then work at a more reasonable pace and stop helping RM get rid of more staff by coming in early, rushing around and not using the tools provided. And lets have a Union that tell it like it is...

* BTW, I have not read the article just responding to the poster that thinks I am all in favour of everything RM does. I am not but I know I am just an employee (just a cog) and also a concerned shareholder.

[chrisj]

And I am not harping on about competition: the competition is already here and RM is not a full monopoly any more. We cannot just bury our heads in the sand and hope they all go away.

It is the Regulators and the Competitors that are putting RM on even more pressure; so much so that they cannot just let things lie... They have to do more to be more efficient and more competitive and in doing so, some things have to give.

[slinder123]

i dont see many delivering the amount of mail and door to doors we do as well as parcels i think your missing something out in your speech chrisj

[chrisj]

If you have read some of my posts, I have always highlighted that we should compare like for like and have almost always defended RM as a company with a much larger role and basket for services; which has its pluses and minuses. And I often stress how we provide a much better service - even though a lot of our people are quick to poo-poo RM for selfish reasons.

Having said the above, someone writing an article talking about the days of Alan Johnson is just really reminiscing and not serious about the reality that we all face in a more market driven and liberal economy; and that applies to almost all industries especially the former public services/companies that have since been privatised...

We can try and shoot the messenger or bury our heads in the sand but as the person criticising my post has said, the writing has been on the wall. So what are we going to do about things? And that is the real issue not what happened in the past or what one blogger or respondent says on an internet forum.

The article ends with the service is not better than RM heydays! Hello, that was a long time ago before the Internet, market liberalisation, mass privatisation and sell-offs in this country and many other developed and even developing countries.

What we are delivering is different and we are not a public service any more and the competition is becoming more cut-throat that standing still and wishing back the past will be the death of all our jobs and that much quicker race to somewhere near the bottom.

So what are we delivering? We are delivering Change (and a whole load of crap in the guise of direct marketing material - but it keep us in the job, for now).

Have a still missed out something? *BTW, just because we are delivering letters and parcel more than anyone else, and lumbered with the USO, it does not mean the competition is not hurting and they are gradually growing (allowed to) and will continue to pose a threat to our jobs and TC.

What is your suggestion? Get Labour in and Nationalise the Royal Mail The same Alan Johnson was in the Cabinet that tried really hard to sell off RM before the Tories.

And when privatisation was been muted and the idea gathering pace, what did the Union do? They made some noises, wrote some articles, sent missive to members & MP, some meetings and interviews* (not good ones on Mass Media and poor communicators) in London and wanted* to organise a March, etc, but what they were really interested in way getting us better pay and conditions.

They did not really fight privatisation; I wonder why? Perhaps, they could not win, perhaps had very little public support (the same public that slagged off Royal Fail before - now reaping what they sowed) and perhaps, as usual, selfish interests prevailed???

[clashcityrocker]

They did not really fight privatisation; I wonder why? Perhaps, they could not win, perhaps had very little public support (the same public that slagged off Royal Fail before - now reaping what they sowed) and perhaps, as usual, selfish interests prevailed???

As you stated earlier, this wasn't the first attempt at privatisation.
The CWU had fought 3 or 4 attempts at privatisation and won every time.
What more could they/we have done?
A strike wasn't possible over the issue as it would have been deemed a "political" strike and the union would have been in court watching it declared illegal and all its assets being sequestered.
There wasn't enough public support. It wasn't a battle we could win on our own.
The underlying pension issue had to be resolved. It was but t a terrible cost, to us and to the general public.

So now we are going to have to fight to save the USO, and with it our jobs. Will there be enough public support?
I doubt it. If my job was driving down rural lanes to farms several miles apart I would be seriously worried.
Who would actually care if I only turned up 3 days a week?

[borders]

have you read the article yet , then Chrisj ?
and not really sure what you mean by this ? " Having an unsustainable pay increase and protected T&C will only hasten the race to the bottom; but people did not see it that way, did they? "
so you would be happy to work for minimum pay on a zero hour contract with hardly any good conditions ?
the antagonism between Capital and Labour is on going, its a cycle. hard fought pay rises and conditions gained by the Unions are taken back by the Tories when they get in power. now is not the time to just give in . I agree , we are on the back foot because of Privatisation but why cant the Postal worker be reasonable well paid and have good conditions ? I am all for fair pay and conditions , for a fair days work. i would like to see the Unions get a foothold in these other companies and support those workers in their fight for better pay and conditions.
"It is the reality of life in a privatised industry and a market economy. For example, why are the people in MC doing the most mundane tasks getting paid the same as delivery staff? It does not make economic sense and why are the most inflexible workers in some delivery offices having easy walks and other fringe benefits or generally an easier life than the most versatile."
I am rather perplexed by this comment ? generally most of the work in RM as a whole is mundane , repetitive and labour intensive. I guess you work in deliveries , why do you think mail centre work is any more mundane than deliveries and should warrant a different pay scale ? I am personally for all workers taking home a liveable wage regardless of what they do . I think most posties on the whole do a good job , it is very easy to tar everyone with the same brush . of course there will be posties that have a charmed life if you like , but I always think good on ya you lucky bastard , maybe one day that might be me !!

[slinder123]

regarding chrisj i was not critisising your post just think about what you are saying .royal mail employees do there job as they are told. the pay they recieve reflects the effort to complete the days work in all weathers on foot . humping bags as the terrain does not allow trollys to be used . knocking extra doors for other people to hold onto someone elses package .it is different from sitting in a van until you get to a single door . so for that reason the story you are telling is of no consequence to us . as long as we do our job royal mail will see off the competition even if it has to join up with another parcel company

[slinder123]

great article , and I think many people on here envisaged that's the way our industry would/wil go after Privatisation . its all very well for people like Chrisj to harp on about competition blah blah blah and the need to buck up but it really is a race to the bottom for the workers and I think everyone can see the chipping away on every level that is happening in RM today.

spot on

[aiden01]

chris j what are these mundane tasks staff do in mc. tell what ile drop my pay to 5.oo ph and you can take a rise to 15.oo ph we are all posties no matter what job we do so should all be on same hourly rate.

[borders]

spot on Aiden and of course many postmen and women have been lucky enough to do all jobs, delivery, mail centre , logistics and distribution during their careers.

[bustedflush]

Good article but privatized or not the model we work under is the USO. Mail is one of the very few services or utilities that actually works better as a monopoly, and the damage mentioned is due to the illogical break-up of a mail monopoly for philosophical reasons rather than practical.

It is actually BAD for macro-economics to have this situation. If you are Conservative-minded your cause is much better served by 150,000 RM workers providing both a decent service and having a good reliable income which enables them to commit to borrow for a home extension, get a car, buy holidays and generally feed plenty of money around the economy. Replacing them with 200k p/t workers on MW and zero-hours is literally 0.5% or more of the stable earnings spent in the economy gone overnight.

Then again Labour'd love that, hundreds of thousands more potential voters needing some sort of reassurance or income guarantee from the state. Makes you wonder who actually cares amongst the politicians.

[chrisj]

How can you call someone that works predominantly indoors a postie?

The idea that we are all posties and of the same grade is a legacy of the past and it is good whilst it is still going... However, in the real business world, people will usually be an indoor

MC staff that only ever does sorting will not be classed the same as someone who actually does some sorting, organises his own time, use some technology is not required to drive, work to some sort of deadline, be responsible for valuables, face customers and work to a schedule that is variable in all weathers...

If this was your own money and your own business, you would not pay a sorter the same as a delivery person. Its not just MC staff that I pointed out - there are some that are not flexible or adaptable within delivery yet we all get lumped together and paid the same.

* I make the point because some of us still live in that 'The Socialist Workers' world but the looming reality will bite really hard.

There are clearly other roles within the MC that is just not sorting - so I am not talking about everyone in MCs...

MC staff do not post anything - how can they be posties; they are postal workers.