royal mail playing dirty,
- Thread starter graystoke4
- Start date
I really feel for the postal workers, they are being deprived of income at a key time by unreasonable management practices. Of course, the true tragedy is that many of these ‘reforms’ will happen & the service will change beyond recognition.Obviously this is market forces to a degree.
I can’t see anything else other than lost income in a lost cause leading to loss of jobs.
I can’t see anything else other than lost income in a lost cause leading to loss of jobs.
Enfield boy
pfm Member
The management have been crap going back at least as far as Crozier, bloody sleb CEO using a vital service as a political football.
Postie for 22 years, couldn't take anymore so went to the doctor's on Monday and got signed off for 4 weeks with stress.
Already I'm starting to feel myself again and I'm looking forward to Christmas, good luck to all the postie's on the picket line, hopefully the new year brings positive news.
Already I'm starting to feel myself again and I'm looking forward to Christmas, good luck to all the postie's on the picket line, hopefully the new year brings positive news.
Rob998
Scimmia Nordoccidentale
17 years here Adam, including a 5 year spell bossing, hope you get better soon. Remember when you get your letter/phone call “inviting” you in for an interview, you are under no obligation to attend, if they try to insist that then becomes bullying/harassment, especially given the reason for your absence. Contact your union rep and initiate the grievance process.
The current atmosphere is very stress inducing, especially now that RM have resorted to intimidation tactics.
To be fair
Hoping it's all sorted out soon.
Best wishes to everyone for Christmas and New year
To be fair for 21 and a half years I've loved it, wouldn't change a thing. But, these last few months have been tough, it's a very toxic working environment....
Hoping it's all sorted out soon.
Best wishes to everyone for Christmas and New year
It certainly is stress inducing, it all seems so avoidable.....I'm not sure what Simon Thompson is trying to achieve....hoping it's settled sooner rather than later.
Rob998
Scimmia Nordoccidentale
He wants to turn us into Evri but with red vans, casualised Labour, owner drivers, jettison the Universal Service Obligation, etc, etc. I could see it coming when we were privatised, but thought the inertia of a huge 500 year old organisation might mean I could ride it out until retirement, but it looks like I’m going to have to find another job for my last 6 working years…, I can’t put up with the degradation of the service for any longer.
gavreid
Pretty Words...
Aethelist
pfm Member
Hadn't had a letter for over 10 days since yesterday. Quite a few Xmas cards bank statements etc but , unbelievably, 3 junk mail things.
Today, Sunday, the porch door opened and I heard something drop. Great, I thought. The LP that I ordered from discogs 10 days ago and the vape order I placed a week ago last Friday has finally arrived. But no. Neither of those. The only thing that arrived was an order I placed with Amazon this Friday and was supposed to be delivered next Tuesday. By Royal Mail.
Guess they really don't want to lose Amazon.
Today, Sunday, the porch door opened and I heard something drop. Great, I thought. The LP that I ordered from discogs 10 days ago and the vape order I placed a week ago last Friday has finally arrived. But no. Neither of those. The only thing that arrived was an order I placed with Amazon this Friday and was supposed to be delivered next Tuesday. By Royal Mail.
Guess they really don't want to lose Amazon.
Rob998
Scimmia Nordoccidentale
Letter mail, other than Special Delivery stuff is being de-prioritised in favour of packages, especially Tracked. There are literally tens of thousands of letters in my office, including thousands of NHS letters, not even making it to our deliveries, just being stacked up in every conceivable nook and cranny, while the staff who would normally be sorting them to the individual duties are reallocated to sorting parcels. I think we’ll be delivering Christmas cards etc well into February.
hifinutt
hifinutt
yes the postboxes are so full you cant post anything !!
It's doubling down of positions now. The board got rid of the previous CEO - Rico Back - largely because the union relationships were completely broken. Always dangerous to predict, but I don't think they will do that again. Simon Thompson (current CEO) had a great union relationship in his first year, in fact Terry Pullinger (CWU) actually sat side-by-side in the May '21 FY results presentation and they delivered as a 'double-act'. So from the board perspective, another CEO is likely to find themselves in exactly the same position. As I've said before, I think we're moving into a 2023 where the business will accept that an agreement with the CWU is not likely, strikes become BAU and part of the business forecast, and the transformation progresses regardless.
A key topic will be Government/Ofcom's decision on the proposed changes to the USO. My view is that it desperately needs to evolve to reflect the shift away from letters, the increase in parcels and the change in the competitor landscape, to allow RM to compete competitively as a private company. There's a lot wilful misinformation floating around online/in the media re the proposed changes to the USO, i.e. 'RMG want to rip up the USO and you won't be able to deliver a postcard to Aunt Hettie in the Shetlands'. The reality is a proposed reduction in some of the tight obligations around letters to allow greater focus on parcels and an increase in parcel-only routes.
Without evolution, we'll see the business fail. What that means is a hostile takeover and a break up of the group (RM, PFW and GLS). RM standalone is a very unattractive business, so would it be possible to imagine a re-nationalisation under a future Labour gov? I genuinely don't know given Labour's increasingly central shift over the years.
A key topic will be Government/Ofcom's decision on the proposed changes to the USO. My view is that it desperately needs to evolve to reflect the shift away from letters, the increase in parcels and the change in the competitor landscape, to allow RM to compete competitively as a private company. There's a lot wilful misinformation floating around online/in the media re the proposed changes to the USO, i.e. 'RMG want to rip up the USO and you won't be able to deliver a postcard to Aunt Hettie in the Shetlands'. The reality is a proposed reduction in some of the tight obligations around letters to allow greater focus on parcels and an increase in parcel-only routes.
Without evolution, we'll see the business fail. What that means is a hostile takeover and a break up of the group (RM, PFW and GLS). RM standalone is a very unattractive business, so would it be possible to imagine a re-nationalisation under a future Labour gov? I genuinely don't know given Labour's increasingly central shift over the years.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
So what happened to sour relationships between the current CEO and the unions in the second year? Government pressure/interference?
Although it feels almost offensive to say it...COVID was a rosy period for RMG as a business. Total parcel traffic went up of course due to the lockdowns, and RMG benefitted hugely from that. They were also awarded the home test kit contract which brought in v useful additional revenue. They were optimistic re the scale, progress and impact of some of the automation/modernisation initiatives including the new 'hubs' (https://www.parcelandpostaltechnolo...nt/royal-mail-opens-warrington-super-hub.html)
Since then, they've fallen into a perfect storm of challenges, some of which were readily predictable, others less so:
- end to the test kit contract
- reduction in parcel traffic as people started to leave their homes (altho that dropped less than it could have done; difficult to predict to what level lockdown-behaviours would persist)
- huge increase in fuel cost. Of course RMG have a huge fleet.
- wider economy/inflation - consumer spending is down and decreasing, so people are spending less = reduced parcel traffic; wider economy issues leading to the requests for greater pay etc.
The company was flush with cash post lockdowns. They clearly could have limited the dividend payouts and the mgmt bonuses in the wake of that, with a view to potentially harder times ahead. However they clearly need to be careful re dividends...the reality - whether we like it or not - is that RMG is a public company now, owned by its shareholders. If the shares see no return then their attractive drops, the company's capitalisation falls and borrowing becomes increasingly expensive.