National Ballot - Part-timers just don't care

[Jamesfr3man]

I'm a PTer and I will support the union and my FT work collages when the ballot comes. I've only been in the job 4 months and I enjoy it and the work hours suit me, but what I have seen in the short time I've worked for RM is that management like to take liberties with PTers and have bullied, lied and withheld information to myself and other PTers to achieve their own ends. Never have I seen such blatant abuse to staff, it’s a shame as the job is quite enjoyable…

[Newbie001]

I'm a PTer and I will support the union and my FT work collages when the ballot comes. I've only been in the job 4 months and I enjoy it and the work hours suit me, but what I have seen in the short time I've worked for RM is that management like to take liberties with PTers and have bullied, lied and withheld information to myself and other PTers to achieve their own ends. Never have I seen such blatant abuse to staff, it’s a shame as the job is quite enjoyable…

Agree. It really has become an "us" "them" and "them" scenario. And union really has to take some of blame.
A part-timer starts nowadays and all they have to go on is manager lies. They wont have start times, breaks, overtime, union or cutting off explained. Most full-timers will avoid working with them for as long as possible. They'll mostly work with other part-timers and when they do work with a full-timer they're very often treated as some sort of burden. The only time they even see their full-time colleague for more than a minute is in WTL where all they get is moaning and people rushing to get out. The only people that have asked me to start early are full-timers, because they don't want to wait on us, which I refuse.
I still don't know the names of quite a few of the full-timers in my office because I've never worked with them.
If it wasn't for this website I wouldn't even know about potential strikes or reasons why.
We don't get invited to any social events and get bugger all at Christmas. Usually left with walks no-one wants or papped off to other office or MC.
Most people at RM I consider friends are Part-time like me and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Don't get me wrong, most full-timers are sound but I personally don't feel any solidarity with them. Mainly because they are treated different by management.
Maybe we should think about forming our own union.

[norris9]

A part-timer starts nowadays and all they have to go on is manager lies. They wont have start times, breaks, overtime, union or cutting off explained.

Most full-timers will avoid working with them for as long as possible. They'll mostly work with other part-timers and when they do work with a full-timer they're very often treated as some sort of burden.

This is true for me too. I wasn't told any details about breaks, overtime, union, cutting off......I feel management remain silent as they just hope to get more out of me than they should.

I understand full-timers seeing part-timers as a potential burden. I think if I was full-time and I was being put with a part-timer who was new, then I'd worry about how slow they'd be. That said....they can cut off. I find it's 50:50 as to whether a full-timer feels it's a burden working with a part-timer. I come in sometimes and I'm put with a full-timer who is ready for me, they have the frame sorted and I just bag up, we go out and have a very relaxed time and finish on time. Whereas others, I come in and they are not prepped and I have got to prep for 30 minutes to an hour and they are stressing, they get in a huff if you make a mistake which takes sub 2 minutes to rectify..... then they typically end up making a mistake which costs us 5 minutes and I say nothing.

Aren't rounds supposed to be prepped by the time the Part-Timer gets in?...... if so - then these full-timers that complain you are too slow out on the walk who didn't have your round prepped when you came in....they are as much to blame for being behind on the delivery.

[Celgar]

A part-timer starts nowadays and all they have to go on is manager lies. They wont have start times, breaks, overtime, union or cutting off explained.

Most full-timers will avoid working with them for as long as possible. They'll mostly work with other part-timers and when they do work with a full-timer they're very often treated as some sort of burden.

This is true for me too. I wasn't told any details about breaks, overtime, union, cutting off......I feel management remain silent as they just hope to get more out of me than they should.

I understand full-timers seeing part-timers as a potential burden. I think if I was full-time and I was being put with a part-timer who was new, then I'd worry about how slow they'd be. That said....they can cut off. I find it's 50:50 as to whether a full-timer feels it's a burden working with a part-timer. I come in sometimes and I'm put with a full-timer who is ready for me, they have the frame sorted and I just bag up, we go out and have a very relaxed time and finish on time. Whereas others, I come in and they are not prepped and I have got to prep for 30 minutes to an hour and they are stressing, they get in a huff if you make a mistake which takes sub 2 minutes to rectify..... then they typically end up making a mistake which costs us 5 minutes and I say nothing.

Aren't rounds supposed to be prepped by the time the Part-Timer gets in?...... if so - then these full-timers that complain you are too slow out on the walk who didn't have your round prepped when you came in....they are as much to blame for being behind on the delivery.

Double prep is a broken system & I doubt it works anywhere in RM. We certainly wouldn't be able to do it in our DO. I guess where it is possible to do the walks must be much shorter than in other offices.
RM expects too much of posties and have no idea how long the job actually takes to complete. The latest advert for 25 hour duties in London is an example of this with all the prep and up to six hours of delivery supposedly being able to fit into a five hour duty slot. What happens if these posties have children to collect from school but read the advert and think this is a job for them?

[1617mel]

Same old, how sad the RM hierarchy are rubbing their hands ,this is what they wanted a massive division between the ranks, RM and CWU both know eventually the
outcome will be even if it takes a few more years even the amount specified for the RM changes [giant parcel sorting depots etc.] that we will go down the route to zero hours contracts etc. an aging workforce , more and more part time workers creating more and more divide, you don't have to be Einstein to se it coming , rico back knows this , so even if he loses some of what he wants implemented , its only a matter of time ..................

[leolion855]

Same old, how sad the RM hierarchy are rubbing their hands ,this is what they wanted a massive division between the ranks, RM and CWU both know eventually the
outcome will be even if it takes a few more years even the amount specified for the RM changes [giant parcel sorting depots etc.] that we will go down the route to zero hours contracts etc. an aging workforce , more and more part time workers creating more and more divide, you don't have to be Einstein to se it coming , rico back knows this , so even if he loses some of what he wants implemented , its only a matter of time ..................

Which is why im abstaining.

[Woody Guthrie]

Which is why im abstaining.

Leo the lion.
Meow.

[leolion855]

Which is why im abstaining.

Leo the lion.
Meow.

I dont believe Rico will listen to a yes vote, but i dont want to stop the people believing it will from having 'their day'

[Jpro747]

Well done Ruby
Some full timers need to have a look at themselves rushing part timers out the door just so they can finish early, when their prep isn’t ready - it’s not their fault, it’s a management issue. Support your colleagues!

[yellowbelly]

.......... What happens if these posties have children to collect from school but read the advert and think this is a job for them?

They get cheesed off and leave.........

[Phantom]

Managers take the piss out of part timers and new starters, some newer members of staff have never worked in a unionised business before and so therefore don't understand that as a working man or woman YOU do have rights in the workplace.

A 35 hour week will bring us closer together and that is something RM don't want!

All I can say is back the Union because without it things would be a hell of a lot worse than it is now.

[My feet are on fire]

Down with this sort of thing!

[Interested-seeker]

I'm a part timer, I think for alot of us this isnt a forever job, more of a stopgap, I like being a postman but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I got laid off, I will do this job for as long as it works for me, if changes get made I will decide if I still want the job.
Having said that I will vote yes in support of the union and my colleagues, if it goes to a strike I will enjoy the time off and not be anywhere near the picket line.

Funnily enough I was having this conversation with my P&L partner yesterday. I get the feeling that most people who have come into the business in roughly the last 5 or so years don’t really see RM as a long term job. Unlike longer serving FT who (even though many won’t admit it) are probably in for the long haul the PT see it more as a stop gap job. This obviously suits RM as the one one thing they detest is long serving staff - they want a high turnover of people where the employee stays for maybe a year or two at most. As has been mentioned in other comments, under these circumstances most recent recruits who will be PT are not going to feel the same anger towards RM as they don’t have such a long term investment in the company.

I have just got a mortgage. I have been working for RM for over two years now. I need job security....I don't see my job as a stopgap at all.

[twoloops]

Some/most of the full timers in my office are worse than the managers,finding out weeks in advance which newbie/part timer would be covering their partners leave & then having them moved & swopped around to different walks, while slagging them off in the managers office & crew room in front of all the other posties, s**t sticks & none of the other posties want to work with the new newbie,I hate to see bullying, sadly quite a lot of the long standing posties are worst than the managers, you should hang your heads in shame, shame on you.

[norris9]

Some/most of the full timers in my office are worse than the managers,finding out weeks in advance which newbie/part timer would be covering their partners leave & then having them moved & swopped around to different walks, while slagging them off in the managers office & crew room in front of all the other posties, s**t sticks & none of the other posties want to work with the new newbie,I hate to see bullying, sadly quite a lot of the long standing posties are worst than the managers, you should hang your heads in shame, shame on you.

It doesn't make sense for it to be like that.

The Part-Timer is there to help when the Full-Timer's partner is away. Full-Timers should expect that for approx 4 weeks a year they will possibly be put with someone else that may be slow. Just cut-off. Within time these Part-Timers will learn your walks and speed up. If you scare them off you will just end up with new recruits to train up to learn these walks all over again. If it's that much of an issue, if possible, just book the same days off that your partner does.

I have not witnessed this in my office, but I do sometimes get put with Full-Timers on a van share and then when I get in in the morning they request to go out on their own, and end up leaving me on my own on a walk I don't know that well and leave me having to do a load of prep.....I end up leaving the depot last.

Overall there isn't, from what I can see, a divide between Full-Timer and Part-Timers, but there is for sure stressed out Full-Timers who do worry about being put with a Part-Timer.

As for this Ballot.....maybe these Part-Timers this thread is about are new and they don't really know much about what's happend in the past and what exactly is going on now.