6 Day Postal Strike Starts Thursday

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Thank you Archie - as I said, it will have included overtime. You also have to bear in mind that I live in the Home Counties so, as per the extract that was posted earlier, the wages are higher here. The extract also printed starting salaries; the ones I know had all been working at the same sorting office for years. Why on earth would I make things up Warbler?

Also, teh postmen I know certainly don't do close to a 40 hr week - more like a 30 hr wk. There is nothing at all wrong with them holding another job, I didn't say thre was. What I object to is the tossy unions encouraging, nay, forcing, their members to strike.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Oct 4 2007, 07:05 PM
Why on earth would I make things up Warbler?

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I'm going to give the benefit of sweet innocent dobut here. You said these exchanges between yourself, and this 'misdirection' of posties (I know not what the collective noun is?)

Let me put it this way;

You are how old when these guys were stating how much they earned?

Have you ever come across people who claim to earn money, the like of which; frankly they don't?

Did you see their pay slips?

Or did you enjoy their banter (at an impressionable age?)


Now think about it.....


If those alleged wages (of "over 10 years ago" - at least) had kept pace? What do you think they were earining? And do you honestly believe that they were telling the truth to a young blonde girl who must still have been in her teens. But if 20K was the norm "over ten years ago" the basic is now at least 33K?


Basically Dom.......... Draw your own conclusions folks,
 
Oh ffs Warbler - I said approaching £20k and you're failing spectacularly to take into account overtime (which is generous and paid on a daily basis), the fact that they are on a higher wage here due to geographical location and that they weren't new recruits.

Don't patronise me with bollocks about being wetbehind the ears and insinuating they were trying to impress me - I am disappointed you'd come out with such crap to be honest.
 
Dom. My mum's best friend was a postie (female before you ask) about 10 years ago for about 3 or 4 years. She was on nothing like £20k pa, with or without OT.

She left not because of the unsociable hours, the pension etc, but because the union element made her feel sick to the core. If she happened to just want to a fair days work for what she considered a fair days pay, there were occasions she couldn't because it would have made her a scab. If she wanted to highlight the poor working practise of her colleagues, she couldn't because that would have made her a scab.

Postie work is nothing more than a glorified paper round, but apparently those who do it think that they should be paid more than teachers, when they should be on far less than nurses.
 
Cheers Al - the first part of your last sentence might be the crux here. The posties I know are country postmen rather than town ones ~ they not only deliver the mail but sort it also being part of a very small sorting office (just the 6 of them working). That may make up the difference in salaries - these guys were on around the £18k mark.
 
Originally posted by ovverbruv@Oct 3 2007, 09:20 PM
Basic Pay
As a guide, new employees aged 18 and over will receive basic pay of around £256 a week for full-time hours rising to £285 - £311 after 1 year. This rate will be on a pro-rata basis for part-time hours. Higher rates are paid in Inner and Outer London and in some parts of the South East.

Quite poor pay really, I say they should be paid lots more for being an essential service.
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I think that's a perfectly reasonable wage for what they do, to be honest. I see people scrubbing the shelves all day in my local Asda who get far less. My other half gets considerably less, and he's in a full time administrative job, leaves at 8am and gets home at 6pm. And it's not a lot less than I get for working a professional legal job which requires the correct training, skills and qualifications (provided their £311 quote was before tax, if it's after tax then they get more than me :laughing: )

It's greedy and unnecessary, people (unions) these days think that they need to have a strop to get their own way. I felt the same about firemen. I also work for a public sector company but was I out when UNISON went on strike? Nope, I almost ran the buggers over in the car park as I drove to work.
 
It's a shame we haven't any postmen in our midst who could put us straight on this.

Sure he would be thrilled to be called a "glorified paperboy".

I don't think it fair to include overtime into a person's wages and then refer to that as their "salary".

I have doubts about Shads being right about them working only 30 hours a week. I am not, and never have been, a postman but I was a sub-postmaster for almost ten years and did get to know a number of postmen very well.They work a six-day week and from memory the day/morning shift starts at 4.30. For Shads to be right in her statement that would mean they would be finishing at 9.30......I don't think so.

It seems to me some people on here are speaking from a position of very little knowledge of the job and it would be best if they found out a little more about the situation before heaping too much criticism on the poor old postie.........burdened down with his sack, trudging through all sorts of weather to deliver the letter you have been waiting for.........!! :P

Just a little tale to show how hard they work over the Christmas period, alright they work a lot of overtime and get paid for it, but when you are told by a postie that he had frightened the ###### out of himself, when almost falling asleep at the wheel of his van when taking some late night mail to a delivery office.

Agreed their not brain-surgeons or nurses but I feel they are due some respect.
 
Our 'fear an phoist' always looks very happy when I see him in the morning. I have often remarked to Mrs AC when I come home from the stress of an exec job in the techie sector that I am going to throw it all in and become a postman.

This causes her to attach electrodes to my 'spectacles.'
 
im a postman and i aint no lazy fker

S L

you want to learn all the facts before shouting your mouth off you wouldnt last a fortnight in the job i start 4.45 till 13.00 and i have had enough by then after taking 7 heavy bags i work in a office of 100 people and i know of only 2 who do other jobs because they are part time need to make wages up

by the way colin thanks for your support

its the pension rights which is my biggest worry colin
 
Fair enough, TW.

Another story about the wealth of postmen.

The same fella who almost fell asleep at the wheel wanted to build a garden wall but he couldn't afford the concrete blocks............so he held a concrete-block party, everyone invited had to take a concrete block with them. :clap:

Not sure of the financial efficacy of the scheme but they did have a laugh!
 
Glorified paperboy?

This one has legs, I reckon.

Teachers are glorified childminders?

Pilots are glorified bus drivers?

Any more?
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Oct 3 2007, 02:15 PM
Lazy feckers. Postmen have an easy life - they only work half the day yet get paid a reasonably good, full time wage. Not only that, a large majority of them have so much free time on their hands they either get a second job in addition or set up businesses. I knew several postmen - all of whom rake the money in. Of all the ones I've known over the years several run gardening/painting and decorating/window cleaning etc businesses or teach people to drive or do something else to supplement their income. So, they start early in the morning - so do many people. Postmen tend to finish by mid to late morning however. I have no sympathy with them - we could all throw our toys out of the pram and strike every time we're pissed off if we really wanted to but we're not all shysters. Someone has to carry on working or everything would grind to a halt.
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I know quite a few postmen and none of them finish mid to late morning, they used to, but not now.

Our post doesn't arrive until around 12pm and I know my postman has at least another hour to go after he delivers my mail.

The strike isn't about wages, its all the conditions attached to the pay rise. If you think the service is bad now, wait until the changes come in that RM are proposing!

Having said that I do think work to rule would be a better opton than striking, the unions are doing a terrible job of educating the public what the strike is about, everyone thinks its just about pay and the public is just getting pi$$ed off at the postmen instead of understanding what the strike is about.
 
Originally posted by dvds2000@Oct 5 2007, 10:38 AM
Having said that I do think work to rule would be a better opton than striking, the unions are doing a terrible job of educating the public what the strike is about, everyone thinks its just about pay and the public is just getting pi$$ed off at the postmen instead of understanding what the strike is about.
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Yes.

Unions in general tend to be poor at keeping the public - and aften their members too - fully informed about the true nature of their grievances. Even the teaching unions are guilty of this.

Royal Mail has been a total shambles since it was privatised but that's nothing new.
 
For starters, I said more like a 30 hour week than a 40 hour week - there is a difference.

Hells bells, the ones I knew were gone by 10-10.30 most days, gone by 9-10 on Saturdays and 2 or 3 times a week gone by 8am! That on a 5am start. It doesn't take a genius to work out that on that sort of scale they ain't gonna be working 40 hour weeks.

Now, I'll admit that was 10 years ago (they were still operating that way 4/5 yrs ago) and it may be different in other areas but these fellas had it great and they knew it.

It was my fault over the pay - I forget that many posties literally deliver letters. This lot sorted their own post and did collections of the boxes in the area and the local post offices also, the area was fairly large at it is rural and out of the way. It's also close enough to London to qualify for the higher wage.

Thanks Colin, but I'm not guessing as you have implied - I worked in the sub post office I am talking about myself for long enough! At any one time we had 6 postmen working for us - sometimes more at Christmas when they'd also receive delivery of extra vans. I know full well that they work harder at Christmas - that much is a no-brainer! - but as you say they get handsome overtime and generous [tax-free] tips in addition.

All in all it's not a bad lot for an unskilled job that requires no exams, no skills or no qualifications whatsoever! Now, what was being said about nurses? If anyone has grounds to complain it's them.
 
Teachers : glorified students with no inclination to experience the real world (after all they never did leave school).

:) (see - we can all do that DO)
 
"...........I worked in the sub post office I am talking about myself for long enough! At any one time we had 6 postmen working for us.................."

How long exactly, Shads, and when?

I doubt very much the postmen were working FOR you.

They were probably working for a different firm, Royal Mail Letters, whilst you would have been employed by Post Office Counters Ltd.

........but that's just a guess, of course.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Oct 5 2007, 12:30 PM
For starters, I said more like a 30 hour week than a 40 hour week - there is a difference.

Hells bells, the ones I knew were gone by 10-10.30 most days, gone by 9-10 on Saturdays and 2 or 3 times a week gone by 8am! That on a 5am start. It doesn't take a genius to work out that on that sort of scale they ain't gonna be working 40 hour weeks.

Now, I'll admit that was 10 years ago (they were still operating that way 4/5 yrs ago) and it may be different in other areas but these fellas had it great and they knew it.

It was my fault over the pay - I forget that many posties literally deliver letters. This lot sorted their own post and did collections of the boxes in the area and the local post offices also, the area was fairly large at it is rural and out of the way. It's also close enough to London to qualify for the higher wage.

Thanks Colin, but I'm not guessing as you have implied - I worked in the sub post office I am talking about myself for long enough! At any one time we had 6 postmen working for us - sometimes more at Christmas when they'd also receive delivery of extra vans. I know full well that they work harder at Christmas - that much is a no-brainer! - but as you say they get handsome overtime and generous [tax-free] tips in addition.

All in all it's not a bad lot for an unskilled job that requires no exams, no skills or no qualifications whatsoever! Now, what was being said about nurses? If anyone has grounds to complain it's them.
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2 or 3 times a week gone after 3 hours work? Methinks they were sacked soon after for being lazy.

They do a job that most people wouldn't (I know I wouldn't like to start work that early) and in all weathers so they deserve a decent wage.

Why should they get paid more for working in or near London? Retail professionals (such as myself) get paid no extra for London working
 
Originally posted by purr@Oct 5 2007, 07:03 AM
I see people scrubbing the shelves all day in my local Asda who get far less.

It's greedy and unnecessary, people (unions) these days think that they need to have a strop to get their own way. I felt the same about firemen. I also work for a public sector company but was I out when UNISON went on strike? Nope, I almost ran the buggers over in the car park as I drove to work.
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This nonesense about using the lowest benchmark as something we should all set our aspirations by always troubles me as a mind set. It's very easy to point to someone whose worse off the then you, and then say be grateful. Why shouldn't people aim higher and say x gets so much, so why can't I?

I take it you had the good grace not to accept the additional pay increase that UNISON won above the first offer Purr? Similarly, I take it you've agreed to accept the new (and more disadvantageous) pension arrangements

No; didn't think you would some how
 
Originally posted by Warbler@Oct 5 2007, 04:20 PM

This nonesense about using the lowest benchmark as something we should all set our aspirations by always troubles me as a mind set. It's very easy to point to someone whose worse off the then you, and then say be grateful. Why shouldn't people aim higher and say x gets so much, so why can't I?
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Very well put Warbler
 
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