Member Info for OliGarch

Darbo, how many of these e-trikes have you ridden and for how many miles?
"New millennial hipster employees" are probably a thing where you live but the nearest we have is "late twenty somethings", most of whom would probably be unimpressed by actually having to pedal it themselves when they can have a diesel '07 plate pink Fiat Doblo which is held together with duct tape and cable ties.....lol

Darbo "royal mail e trike".... I had forgotten about these and the other daft incarnations. Are they still going or yet another non runner consigned to landfill?

MaryB, "Royal Mail has offered a pay deal it says is worth up to 9% over 18 months."
Its a far cry from the original business stance last May of "there's no money so it's 0% take it or leave it"..... followed in June by "here's 2% so off on your way, be grateful and don't forget to doff your cap". Now, we are up to 9%.... only it isn't as some of that is bonus or one off payments which are neither pensionable or flow through to salary.
Funny though....getting rid of 10,000 full time posts should in theory reduce the staff costs by around 8% which is excellent except for the fact that in theory the business needs a workforce that is capable of delivering to up to 32 million addresses, 6 days a week, so how low do you cut your staff numbers before it starts to fail and then it just looks like a deliberate act of sabotage?

AngerSharkz, it's not every day that I manage to successfully convey my sentiment into the written format, so thank you for recognising this.
Melodramatic.....in response to an over dramatic post.
You see, I have absolutely no doubt that in Redceo's world (which is undoubtedly different to the rest of the 98% of us) that any employee who's contract is coming to an end and doesn't like the new terms, conditions and pay will tender their resignation and the company will find another employee to fill the void.
Now extended that to over a hundred thousand employees in the same company at the same time. Sure, it would have completely wrecked the company's plans in the short term and quite possibly a little longer until a new workforce could be found, which is something that is perplexing Jeremy Hunt at present as the over fifties leave the job market in droves. It may have devastated the SP in the short term, which would have been a bonus for those wanting a cheap top up, it may have even sped up a VESA takeover bid.
You are correct that nobody is asking us to work down coal mines (apparently it was good enough for Thompson's father) for nowt, which is due to years of negotiations between employer and the union plus the TUC involvement in better legislation for workers around the UK.
Your assumption that the BoD want the workforce to move towards different working patterns "slightly" makes this sound trivial however who wants to be finishing their late shift or starting their night shift at midnight instead of 10pm?
The original proposals from the BoD were to move start/finish times by up to 3 hours, annualised hours (for a company that struggles to keep it's IT systems running smoothly at the best of times so that when it all goes t!t$ up there's no records), a vastly reduced sick leave policy (which is currently mirrored in the NHS) for a workforce doing a very physical job, mandatory Sunday working, changes to the ill health retirement policy, new employees on different terms and conditions and more besides. Admittedly the company has now reigned back on Sunday working, annualised hours and ill health retirement but I'm sure that they will be back for that in the next year or two.
Lastly, you mentioned that your company went through changes to terms and conditions that you didn't like but still went along with to keep your job so I'm assuming that your job and employment is more important to you than the pay, terms and conditions but how low would your company have to go for you to decide to look for another employer?

I respect our union forefathers who campaigned tirelessly for the rights that many of us take for granted today.
I cannot respect a small group of highly paid individuals, many of whom have been in the business for a very short period, who want to destroy those terms for it's workforce, citing their own failures for doing so.

AngerSharkz, my understanding of the free shares is that, as with Rico Back and Moya Greene, these would form part of any severance package should they not last the distance?
Greene finished her contract and allegedly walked out with a million shares. Back left after the £6m "golden hello" controversy even though he had been an employee for twenty years but I'm not sure how many of his shares were freebies.

AngerSharkz, "I think both sides would be better off finding two level heads from each side and putting them in a room together?"
I totally agree with you there. Sometimes you have to look from the outside to see where the sticking points are?
Perhaps it's time to bring on the super-subs from the bench?

Hounddog, I seem to remember that Guildford DO and former MC site (along with the Porsche dealership) was always on a property developers radar due to it's location?
AngerSharkz, apparently Thompson has posted a message this morning saying "We have met with the CWU again this week but once again we're unable to pass conduct issues and revisions. The CWU is threatening to take further damaging strike action within the next three weeks. We wait to hear how the CWU decide to move forward".

AngerSharkz, the parcel volume decline for the UK operation would seem to confirm my post on Tuesday regarding the immediate cancellation of planned further parcel automation rollout. Apparently there were three large parcel machines awaiting installation in three mail centres due this year that will now not go ahead in order to optimise the existing hubs.

Dowsie, I believe that the natural attrition rate is somewhere between six and eight thousand a year however the business can't rely upon this to lose staff in the correct places at the correct time so sometimes things need a helping hand.

AngerSharkz, if the rumour of £1.5bn of "excess property" is true then it would be interesting to know where these properties are located. I know that back in the '80s, Black Horse Agencies (which I believe were part of RM and looked after the property portfolio) had many buildings and plots within the M25 and also in the Milton Keynes area on it's books.
Regarding the trading update, it's a lot better than the media were touting back in November.
Regarding further strike action, the ballot is open and closed on the 16th of February. No strike action can therefore take place until the 2nd of March at the earliest.
My personal feelings are that an 18 month or 2 year deal will be struck of around 6.5% to 7.5% with the business reigning back on most of it's original proposals from last July. I think that a big sticking points will be sick leave terms and guaranteed start/finish times. All in my opinion of course and we will have to wait and see what happens.

MaryB, as AngerSharkz has already alluded to, perhaps Kretinsky and Williams need Thompson to stay in post for a little longer and maybe keep the SP low before hanging him out to dry?
According to the RMG RNS, Vesa increased their holding in RMG on the 26th of January 2022 at approximately 440p and then again on the 7th of April 2022 at approximately 324p so possibly the 8th of April will be a pivotal day?

Kretinsky won't be there because he's going to have to learn Thompson and Williams some select committee etiquette before they get thrown in the tower......lol

Yes, I would expect IDS to reach 400p.

I have just been informed by my line manager that the parcel automation rollout has been cancelled so that the business can focus on optimising performance in the existing parcel machinery hubs.
Is the UK operation anticipating a stalling or downturn in parcel volumes or do they feel that it currently has enough machinery to cope?
Also, rather strangely, it has been reported that the new barcoded first and second class stamps are being counterfeited at an even higher rate than the old stamps with the forgers even creating their own unique codes.
We live in strange times....

Redceo, "The Board,CEO, Owners are not the problem here" which is just another way of blaming the employees without actually saying it?
"Arrive do your job as outlined, nothing more or less". Which is what we were all doing before the CEO decided that he wanted to make sweeping changes to work/attendance patterns, start/finish times and other Ts&Cs without even bothering to consult with his employees.
Changing the CEO may not always be the correct solution for any business but I'm sure that you will agree with me that RMG were in the position of being loss making exactly three years ago and the pandemic threw it a lifeline (absolutely no pun intended) however the BoD failed gloriously to keep things in balance and perspective regarding shareholders and the employees plus they also failed to plan for future development of the UK operation.
I have absolutely no doubt that Thompson is a puppet for someone higher up the food chain so probably best to leave him there and hang him out to dry later on?

casperdog, trust you to only see the positives in a situation....lol

Thompson has weathered the week so I would imagine the Select Committee is yesterday's chip wrapper by now although I wonder if he ever wrote back to say which advisors they were using?.....lol

I didn't think that it would be long before this story resurfaced......lol
A stark reminder for all posies with an NRA60 pension to keep track of theirs and if necessary claim it before the Chancellor of the day changes the rules.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-11661031/Households-pay-tab-50bn-posties-pensions.html

Sid, I guess that we won't have long to wait as the ballot papers will be sent out tomorrow.