A hanging Royal Mail employee has voiced fears as much as 25,000 employees may very well be sacked and new working circumstances imposed on these left after the core Christmas season has completed.
The man, who normally delivers letters and parcels within the London space and is being recognized as ‘Derek’ as a result of he wished to stay nameless, was talking on the eve of the newest strike which started on Friday.
He mentioned the 115,000 frontline staff have been combating for the very way forward for the enterprise.
Their union, the CWU, has claimed the programme of modernisation the corporate is in search of, together with voluntary Sunday working, in return for a bigger pay rise would flip Royal Mail right into a “gig economy-style parcel courier, reliant on casual labour”.
Royal Mail has argued it’s essential to assist it higher compete because it locations a better give attention to the profitable parcel supply sphere at a time when the corporate is dropping £1m a day.
Derek, who’s a union member however not a rep, defined that whereas a part of the struggle was for higher pay, he and his colleagues have been strolling out to guard the corporate’s values from a future that might imply a worse deal for the general public and employees alike.
He mentioned Royal Mail was trying to weaken its commitments to letter supply and make its contracted staff go additional, via elevated flexibility, to line the pockets of shareholders.
The essential gripes, Derek mentioned, coated Sunday working and later begin occasions for deliveries.
“The pay deal is something we wanted but 2% (with more in return for accepting new working practices) was a joke,” he mentioned.
“The vision is to start deliveries later and finish later but if you don’t complete by your time allocated, we don’t know where we stand as the goal posts keep changing. It becomes a conduct issue.
“They’ve obtained us by the b****.
“We are cutting off (finishing rounds before completion) on a regular basis because we’re not getting paid any extra to clear backlogs.”
Derek blamed employees shortages, saying company staff had been introduced in to assist.
“We’re on £12 an hour. Agency are getting £15-20,” he mentioned.
“Freelance drivers are being used to cover vacancies. They (Royal Mail) don’t want to recruit.
“The evening shifts for Christmas are one other difficulty. The backlog is phenomenal. Packages are being prioritised when the corporate insists that’s not the case.
“It’s the terms and conditions that are the paramount issue in this dispute. They’re trying to fix something that doesn’t need it.
“Once Christmas is over, they will do no matter they need and impose these adjustments.
“Compulsory working Sundays – I didn’t sign up for that. They say it’s voluntary but I’m having to do that now.
“Sickness goes via the roof.”
He added that Royal Mail was deducting wages by £117 per day for strike days.
“I solely earn £75 per day however they’ve taken off allowances together with for the lack of leaflet drops,” he claimed.
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Royal Mail reacted to the growing cost of the strikes in October by launching a consultation on job cuts that could see around 10,000 roles cut by the end of August 2023. It later revealed half-year financial losses of £219m.
The company made, what it called, a “finest and last” offer to end the dispute in late November.
However, its “intensive enhancements” were rejected by the CWU and further walkouts are scheduled for 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said of Derek’s comments: “Dave Ward, basic secretary of the Communication Workers Union, has made a number of false statements about job losses designed to mislead and create concern and uncertainty amongst our workers.
“As recently 28 November, we wrote Mr Ward to correct his false allegations that Royal Mail is planning to ‘sack’ thousands of workers and wants to become ‘another courier company’.
“This is just not true. We have already introduced that reductions in 10,000 full time equal roles – which have turn out to be vital because of industrial motion, the necessity for higher productiveness and decrease parcel volumes following the pandemic – shall be achieved via pure attrition, decreasing short-term staff and a beneficiant voluntary redundancy scheme which has been oversubscribed.
“We would be happy to look into any concerns the individual has about his pay.”
Source: information.sky.com”