Royal Mail safe from strikes before Christmas
by Chris Dawson
Good news is coming out of the latest round of talks between the Royal Mail and CWU. Roger Poole, who is overseeing negotiotions said that “progress is being made and agreements are being reached on some issues, or are close to agreement; some topics still have a way to go”.
Even better at their last formal review meeting held on Friday they discussed what the key issues are across the process and all parties are committed to an intensive series of negotiations this week with the next formal review to be held on Tuesday 22 December.
By the 22nd they hope significant progress will have been made towards a final agreement, but for online retailers that pretty much takes us up to Christmas with no more threats of industrial action being called by the CWU prior to the holidays starting.
29 Responses on "Royal Mail safe from strikes before Christmas"
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I’d like to think that the CWU have finally realised that any industrial action is just as damaging to them as it is to all those business that rely on Royal mail.
I’m not saying they don’t have a case or that they should roll over and play dumb – if they have grievances let them me known. During the last round of industrial action nobody seemed to know just what the grievances were, and the action didn’t seem fully supported.
Industrial action MUST be the last course of action, and not a negotiating tool.
I’d like to think that the CWU have finally realised that any industrial action just saves the Royal Mail money as everything still gets delivered but they have to pay less wages
Your right Chris – the dispute was an annoyance and not much more. Mail got delivered and we all got on with our lives.
My point however is that whilst we were all being inconvenienced by the industrial action, nobody seemed to present any sort of explanation as to what the action was all about.
It’s worrying that if the CWU couldn’t explain why they were taking action, are they able to represent their members in getting the best deal for them, and are they sufficiently skilled to prevent future action.
“nobody seemed to present any sort of explanation as to what the action was all about.”
I did and so did others,but most of you were too ignorant to take any notice,and all we got was the ,if you dont like your job speech,and a lot of other kack.
I’ve been too busy to come on here lately,but you lot seemed to have carried it on.
Beggers belief!
Why not state your case, or restate you case, instead of criticising.
truth is most of us here, work long and hard hours ,and dont have much sympathy for those that work 8/10 hour days, who then get awkward if they need to work a little harder than they are used too
Did anyone watch Panorama last night?
Yes I did. And if I’m totally honest, for the first time, I did actually feel some sympathy for the posties.
If the management spokesman is representitive of Royal mail management, then the chances of reasonable discussion with them seems unlikely.
Of course he is right when he says that ALL postmen should be prepared to work a full day for a full day’s wage, but the postie that was featured was obviously exasperated. After over twenty years as a postie he is now being told that if he doesn’t get around his current round faster, he could face the sack.
then they get some super-fit ex-marine to give his round a bash, and even he says that to expect anybody to do that round at that pace every day is totally unreasonable.
Yes, I did. It was interesting that Panorama got someone who regularly took brisk cross country walks to do one postie’s round, who then stated that it would be difficult to complete in the time alloted five days a week, and that if he went any faster he’d be jogging.
Also, Royal Mail claimed the round was four and a half miles long, when in fact it was six.
The thing I like to mention was the guy who did the round(who was an ex-marine) did not have to stop to knock on peoples door to delivery packets, he did not have to get signatures for recorded delivery’s & he also did not have to stop and reload his bag 7 or 8 times….& he still could not finish the round in time!
he did not have to get signatures for recorded delivery’s… erm, that’s the norm isn’t it?
did not have to stop to knock on peoples door to delivery packets…When they bother to even take them out on the round.
What’s wrong with giving someone a hards days work, is that illegal now, against some kind of health and safety regulation?
The Royal Mail managers are (in my opinion) working all the dead wood out of the system, the ones that don’t want to change…The ones that have been there for 26 years and think “it’s much harder than it used to be” no $h!t Sherlock.
Until the posties are capable of doing the job properly (leaving cards, not using bins, not stealing mail, stop having allocated sick days, stop striking, forget how “it used to be” they simply don’t have an argument (in my opinion).
The best bit about that show was when TNT said that their intention was to have orange postmen on the streets, starting with the cities etc…Great news, and yes I would be willing to pay more. I think around £1 would be ok for a 1st class letter.
Yep as you said TNT will be doing the high streets & businesses which is very profitable. But obviously they will not be touching housing estates or households as that will lose them money. As I have said before Royal Mail dont want to delivery to homes themselves & I believe in the near distant future they will want customers to pick up their mail themselves at their local delivery office to save themselves money.
That might be fine by you, but for the people who live quite far away from the delivery office or if your elderly, well they may find it quite difficult to collect they mail.
& if your saying that most postman do not get they’re recorded’s signed for or that most postman leave packages for their customers in the bin, & that postman steal from Royal Mail then you really are as daft as you sound.
It is very evident from your sweeping generalisation that you have in fact been subjected to bad service from a postman… may I say that you may have an opinion on an individual, but that does NOT give you right to tar all postman with the same brush.
As I stated many times before many postman cannot complete their rounds in the time given to do so. You choose not to believe this & to be honest I don’t give a damn if you do or not, but don’t you dare call me and my colleagues thief’s!!!
I have been a postman, I know what goes on and how and when etc.
Yes my statement was a general one, but it’s based on my experience of sending over 100 parcels a day for the past 3 years. I think that gives me some experience to call upon.
Of course there are honest postmen/women that goes without saying.
but don’t you dare call me and my colleagues thief’s!!!…
I have no idea if you or the poeple you work with have ever stolen anything but the fact that 1780 items of mail get “lost” each day may suggest that someone is not being completely honest, don’t you think?
But please do tell me how mail gets “lost” in the post, not taking into account all the letters stuffed behind or under your frame?
Do these letters walk off on their own and lose their way, perhaps they are abducted by aliens?
Or perhaps they are dropped into bins, delivered to the wrong houses, burnt in back gardens, stored in peoples attics…Ring any bells?
you have in fact been subjected to bad service from a postman…Yes, you’re right, I have almost every week since the day I started using Royal Mail, am I alone in having experienced such poor levels of service? Well, I would think the answer to that one is obvious.
How many times are you going to tell us you have been a postman? I have also worked for Royal Mail but that was over 20 years ago and it is a very different operation now. I also wasn’t there for a significant amount of time.
In my opinion the majority of postman do give Royal Mail value for the pay that they receive. The majority of postman are not thieves and do attempt to deliver the mail when possible. Most parcels are not left in dustbins.
Do the courier firm ever loose goods or fail to deliver? Do they ever have lazy or rude staff or leave parcels in bins?
I am personally not convinced that TNT (or whoever) will offer a better services even if the prices double or treble.
The majority are not the problem, it’s the small number that simply don’t get “it”.
“it” being that it’s not wrong for your boss to ask you to work hard.
“it” being that times change, change with it or get left behind.
“it” being you should expect to get judged by the actions of the monority, that is the way it works right or wrong.
Do the courier firm ever loose goods or fail to deliver? Do they ever have lazy or rude staff or leave parcels in bins?…
…I would imagine yes, but when was the last time a minority of City-Link employees bullied the rest to go on strike?
So it is your opinion that postman are a bunch of lazy luddites?
Who was bullied to go on stike at Royal Mail?
Royal mail have a whole dept set up to counter theft ,
its very much like an internal police force with detectives sting operations and under cover agents
cant think why they would have such a thing if mail was not being nicked!
Bigpoppa-
Its funny these 1780 items that get lost in the post you should mention. But I get at least 30 items per day that are not addressed properly ie
Miss Smith
Flat 2
The high Road
Wherever
EG3 5TL
The fact that the person has not left a house number is why I have to kill off(pouch off) so many items per day.
People may think its our job to find out where these letters go but in fact its not. Once upon a time I used to do as much as possible to find out where this person lived so they can be reacquainted with their delivery item. But alas now I have no longer the time to find out where this item goes as we are constantly being assessed at how many items we are throwing of per minute in fear of the slow working procedure/conduct code.
We have a corner piled up of hundreds of letters with incomplete addreses like these with most having no return of address to send it back too. & this is just in our small 80 workforce office. Maybe just maybe this is one of the main reasons why so many items get lost in the post. Being an ex-postman you should know this.
& no I do not believe that even a small percentage of postman leave packages in dustbins. That is a stupid remark.
I also find it quite hypocritical that you yourself use Royal Mail when your pretty convinced that postman leave items in bins, burn items in their gardens, are a bunch of robbing thieves & store your packages in their attic.
Im sorry that you had a hard time when you were at Royal Mail,I really am. You did not deserve that & it was wrong. But to come out with the comments you are coming out are offensive & slanderous. Especially from someone like myself who has never left items in a bin & has never put a “sorry you was not in” card without attempt of delivery first.
Soz – I forgot to mention this, but out of the 30 or so letters that I get per day that are incomplete, I do know around half of em just by doing my round regularly. This obviously helps, but when I’m off (leave/holiday) then these letters are simply just pouched off never to be seen by the intended addressee. Personal I think this is awful & would rather these letters be waiting for me on my return so I can find their rightful homes, but Royal Mail want every office clear by the end of the day so they can hit their targets.
Wheels, before you say
& no I do not believe that even a small percentage of postman leave packages in dustbins. That is a stupid remark.
you probably should scroll back a bit and see that that happened to Chris a couple of weeks ago. It’s also happened to me, my sister, my mother, three of my customers (that I know about) and several people on eBay message boards. Sorry it’s not what you want to hear
Parcels also get left in recycling boxes:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8429314.stm
Wheels, you’re atalking shite again. Mail that has no return address and is mis-addressed or not called for is handled by Portsmouth or Belfast Mail Centres. It shouldn’t be in a pile in the corner of your hard-done-by, overworked delivery office.
If it is one can only presume your colleagues are going through the mail for Christmas presnts when no-one is looking?
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400144&mediaId=500140
That makes me feel sick to the stomach to hear that Sue
I myself know that if this ever happened to me I would be fuming. This should be an automatic sacking without question if a postman was found guilty of doing this.
Maybe on reflection I have been very shortsighted on the things that I feel only happen in my office.
Sorry Bigpoppa if I caused you any offence by saying that you made a stupid remark. I was wrong to do
A TRS Seller
No you misunderstand me. Letters with incomplete addresses will still go to their destination, but if the delivery postman does not know where the item of mail goes, he then endorses the item himself by putting a sticker on the letter/packet and ticks the appropriate box. ie
gone away
not known
address inaccessible
incomplete address
uncalled for
Then we put the letters in the dead corner which is picked up & then it is taken to Portsmouth or Belfast.
Remember that most items of mail which is incorrectly addressed is only found to be so, when it gets to the final delivery officer on his round.
FWIW, I don’t think a single incidence of “package in the bin” should be instant sacking. We all do dumb things when we’re stressed, under pressure or new. Repeated “bin deliveries”, different matter.
I do think one of the things that makes it more difficult is UK letter boxes. Here in France, we have standard mail boxes which all posties have a master key for, and any parcel up to about 40cms in any direction can be left easily even if I’m out. If British houses had something similar, most of the delivery problems you ever get could be avoided IMHO.
I wouldnt personally like to leave an item in the bin just in case that customer is on holiday or heaven forbid in hospital for some reason & the dustman could end up taking the parcel away.
If I think it could inconvenience my customer by having to go to the office to pick up the parcel, I always try to leave it with a neighbor first and post a card through their door saying what I did & so & so has got their packet.
I think a major sticking problem for Royal Mail is that when a postman does eventually get out on his round, the postman cannot get rid of the larger items due to a high number of customers being at work . So yes that idea of yours with bigger boxes outside peoples abodes would definitely work & would help everyone in the long run.
The simpla answer is for RM to be allowed to triple the price of its service.
The number of items would reduce enough to ease the burden on the workers
and the increase in profit could be channelled into making the service better.
it would probably kill the xmas card business though
First/second class letters are subject to ‘regulated’ price increases.
Large letters not so which explains the rises (up to 100gm) from 48p to 52p to 61p.
I anticipate something around 70p from this April.
e-cards are greener anyway and there are plenty which let you donate to charitys too