Using Southend on Sea Mail Centre as an example, the introduction of the RTD [Road Transport Directive] is certainly not without its problems.
We entered into the RTD on 2nd April 2007, which although has seen a pay rise for those members who wish to be professional drivers it has caused many operational problems.
Southend Mail Centre has managed to place all members who want the enhanced pay on professional drives and remove those who require extra overtime using the MTSF agreement, everybody is on a five day week, Monday to Friday and no default duties have been used. This has however all had a knock on effect.
As a result, the running of the Southend Mail Centre is now going to experience staffing problems.
Royal Mail has found itself with virtually no cover for the entire weekend operation. This has left them with very few options, one of which may be to recruit AG drivers on 17 hour plus contacts to cover this work.
With a weekly limit of 11 hours overtime per professional driver, a large number of driving members have made themselves unavailable for extra work. This short fall of staffing hours could be bridged with AG duties?
The Road Transport Directive has given many a good increase in pay, but has certainly created many more problems across the business, which as usual Royal Mail has not thought through.
This union will of course keep the staffing of this work under review and will continue to work hard to maintain not only earnings for our members but also maintain the operation, which is getting increasingly difficult with all the restrictions that come with the new legislation.
Julian Davies / Peter Brown
Area Distribution Reps |
