SHARED VAN DISMISSAL

[smithyboy]

Hello all I have been a royal mail postman for the last 12 years, I've had a great relationship with all staff,management etc, unblemished record, in my 12 years service I have never been sick, any overtime that was available and whenever management was in need of help I would be there to assist, not a problem what so ever, I really did enjoy my role and built up a great relationship with colleagues, and customers out on delivery.

It all starts back in January 2021 where an emergency had been bought to attention, and at the time I had no way of getting my self home, and at the time my mental wellbeing was not in a great place, and my anxiety levels were rapidly arising as no help from management was given to me as to how I was going to make it home with 0 funds on me, whilst very upset by this a fellow colleague who has been working for the company for 24 years could see that my mental wellbeing was not in a great place and therefore took it upon him self to offer me a lift home in the Royal mail vehicle, which in the moment I kindly accepted.

Since the day of the event with my colleague giving me a lift home I was suspended for a further 3 months aswell as my colleague who gave me me lift home, we had both been told the delivery office manager was investigating the situation, neither of us had no phone call for 1 month of that time to check in, and as you can imagine a very distressing time. Mid April I was inviting in for a final decision on this case and I was dismissed as well as my colleague which I believe was a very unfair outcome and very upsetting.

I am now currently appealing this decision. What I am very curious about is,why is it ok for other offices around the area to currently van share? And it seems to not be a problem what so ever, but with my situation it has been treated very unfairly, and the length of time I have been waiting on meetings has been disgusting. People's mental health and wellbeing should really be taken seriously in these current times, I have felt very let down by royal mail. If anyone can give me any feed back on this, if they have been involved in any similar situation it would be greatly appreciated.

[CharlesG]

I’ve seen management turn a blind eye to this in my office on numerous occasions.
Seems very harsh to be dismissed, at same time if management choose to crack down on it they have agreements and training procedures that show this is against RM Policy at the time being.
For all of your years service this is not the correct way to be treated and actually sets a dangerous precedent for all colleagues.
Good luck to you though on appeal

[RHONE]

Good luck with everything I can only imagine what you have been going through i cant offer much help but i was in a similar situation a few years back and my mental wellbeing has never been the same and its sickening to think that something we rely on so much and give all our time to is just a joke to RM
Keep with it and hopefully you will be like the few others we hear about that were dismissed and won there appeals.

[Numberone63]

Utter disgrace. Good luck with your appeal. In our office just this week I saw a manager take out a none driver to his starting location in a work van.

[mags999]

no way is this a dismissal a serious offence at worst see how the union deal with this if they cant get this overturned we might as well withdraw

[Acca Dacca]

Someone on here posted a story almost identical to this before and the emergency mentioned was a COVID alert saying to go home and self isolate.

Was this you? If it was you have missed out a pretty important part of the events this time.

[scoobydo79]

A dismissal was bound to happen over van sharing sooner or later.Good luck with Your case .Perhaps now other people will take it more seriously.Just sorry it has come to this.

[Woody Guthrie]

It does warrant dismissal unfortunately because it's a serious breach of health safety procedure.

That's a cold hard fact that doesn't change whether it's your first or last misdeed.
Best defence in these cases is usually ignorance, I wasn't made aware that the ban on van sharing extended to emergency situations. Not sure how far it will get you but probably further than this or that office was doing it, that's largely irrelevant.

[mags999]

sadly two faced barstewards comes to mind where royal mail management is concerned

[barcajr]

In my office there were a couple of instances of people caught van sharing, all that happened was that they received an informal warning and a reminder that it is a sackable offence. Can't see why management didn't do the same in your case, unless they decided to make an example of you because van sharing is prevalent in your office or management are simply being txats

[scoobydo79]

Smithy boy how did manager know You had been two in a van?

[al64]

Union rep told him

[scoobydo79]

Union rep told him

So possibly just hearsay then? He actually accepted a lift in a colleagues own vehicle after working hoursBoth PDAs keys etc all handed in I take it and signed out

[al64]

In working hours and in van

[scoobydo79]

In working hours and in van

Oh dear.