Delivering What Exactly?

[chrisj]

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.

And there a few postmen that have had highly paid and more professional jobs but they are still paid for exactly what they do but not what they did in the past. If we are all posties and some MC staff are so versatile, how come they are not coming in droves to fill some of the gaps in some delivery offices rather than waiting for VR or moaning about closures.

[aiden01]

so you are a postie and i.m a postal worker wtf is the difference I work in a mc you work in del who cares we are all postmen/women

[aiden01]

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.

And there a few postmen that have had highly paid and more professional jobs but they are still paid for exactly what they do but not what they did in the past. If we are all posties and some MC staff are so versatile, how come they are not coming in droves to fill some of the gaps in some delivery offices rather than waiting for VR or moaning about closures.

why should mc staff not moan about closures most of them will probably lose their jobs.

[thegreatestfreddy]

sorry aiden01, I have to agree with Chrisj on this one.....

delivery staff are literally on there knees with the pressures and drive for increased efficiency and cost cutting.... yet every day you see other parts of the business where the staff are obviously no where near under the same amount of mental and physical strain (and have to continue smiling in front of the customer) and you can see cost and efficiency blatantly haemorrhaging away....

this seriously does need to be addressed and if it means a differentiation in pay for different roles then I would not see it as not making sense.....

trouble is Royal Mail just see efficiency as a straight line graph.... in the quest for this on delivery we are being pushed so hard now that we are likely to be past our peak and back on the decline but they think for some reason we do not follow this 'bell shaped' trend which is evident everywhere else in the world!!

[thegreatestfreddy]

just to clarify what I said above....

Royal Mail think that by thrusting ever more amounts of work on us we continually become more efficient... in reality you reach a 'peak' and then you start to decline in efficiency again.... there Is a name for this 'event' but I cannot think what it is at the moment....


at Christmas in our unit, collection staff were asked if they could help out on deliveries as we were so busy.... the silence was deafening!.....
we had to listen for days afterwards people wandering around say 'thrw i'm thrw not thrw doing a thrw de thrw liv thrw ery' in a sullen miserable voice (sorry don't know how to best express it!)... and they didn't.....

these people fit well into Moya Greene's vision of a 'can do culture'.... !!

I expect to work hard for the money which I am paid... I don't begrudge that, but I don't expect to be crucified in the process while others stand by watching...!

[aiden01]

agree del staff are getting hammered but still. think we should all be on same pay grade just. my opinion.

[thegreatestfreddy]

agree del staff are getting hammered but still. think we should all be on same pay grade just. my opinion.

thanks for recognition aid..... difficult times..... makes you think there is maybe a pivotal point for the business at some time in the not too distant future...??

[borders]

there is no denying that Deliveries is the most physical demanding work in RM. I know , I have done it . if we lived in a society where the hardest physical jobs were paid the highest wages , then I guess all today's bankers would be navies instead !! of course that is a poor analogy because it does not take other considerations into account .
however , different pay grades within Deliveries , MC worker and Collections would divide the workforce in an instance and render the Union null and void . many would say they already are . as a private company with shareholders do you honestly believe that Delivery wages would then suddenly jettison into the atmosphere ? the template is out there , and it is used by TNT, UK Mail etc. Minimum wages , Owner drivers paid by per item , poor contracts and conditions etc etc.
I have no idea how this will all pan out within RM and the industry we work in but solidarity with your fellow workers is just as important now , as it has ever been. do you honestly believe Moya Greene and the like , give a toss about ChrisJ and the greatestfreddy and their woes ? check out the Bob Crow quote underneath !!

[thegreatestfreddy]

.....solidarity with your fellow workers is just as important now , as it has ever been.....

where was the solidarity you speak of over Christmas I speak of??.....

easy to say.... difficult choice in reality for some it seems??

[borders]

if you are understaffed at Xmas you are going to struggle , when you say help out what do you exactly mean ? stay on longer over your duty time or generally work much harder doing basically 2 jobs ? not sure what you mean ?

[chrisj]

Different pay grades will divide the Union - exactly how? Are you saying that it is the pay grades that unite us?

Have you not notice that the CWU is not just a Union for Postal Workers* - and within the collectives of different organisations, there are different pay grades.

Unison is a much bigger Trade Union and different pay grades does not affect the way they function.

The issues within Delivery is so much different from Mail Centre, MDEC and Logistics; and the same within the other groups mentioned. As long as you do not have different local pay arrangements then I do not see the problem.

Delivery is not just about the physicality but the roles performed by that single individual compared to the MC on the same grade is far more involved and demanding. It is a completely different job so the grading is not right. For example, if a worker from MC goes off sick, they can simply rally round or ask for earlier shifts to stop for some OT and/or ultimately get managers (often surplus to requirements) involved or temporary staff.

If someone goes off sick in Delivery, that person's job has to be covered - hardly any excess staff, we do not use temps and all those in the Unit will have to lapse or people do OT (physical & same rate) or manager/phg goes out. Sometimes we only have one manager and/or one PHG in our smallish office. This scenario, we face more and more these days.

I have only highlighted this issue just to point out that RM is still more of a socialist/public set-up than an outright business orientated organisation.

[chrisj]

if you are understaffed at Xmas you are going to struggle , when you say help out what do you exactly mean ? stay on longer over your duty time or generally work much harder doing basically 2 jobs ? not sure what you mean ?

Basically, you can lend us some of your surplus staff (if any) to come and sort mech mail or chuck out D2Ds - that is just an example; of course, it depends on the competence of the volunteers; as some of you claimed to have worked in delivery before...

[thegreatestfreddy]

the unit was struggling.... volunteers were asked for to help out on deliveries (presumably being paid for any additional hours) and there were none to my knowledge

[thegreatestfreddy]

the unit was struggling.... volunteers were asked for to help out on deliveries (presumably being paid for any additional hours) and there were none to my knowledge

sorry to say but this looks like solidarity when it suits...!

[borders]

no it looks more like your unit is understaffed !!