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I see the "is "/ "is'nt" debate was concluded this morning with Fruitster and 200iq insisting it is still cheaper to employ Angard staff. Well just bear in mind this pertinent little point if you would: don't think of it as one particular person who is employed on a zero hour contract and only gets, on average, 2 or 3 days each week throughout the year -- think of it as there is always someone, on that shift, doing that job, 24 hours of the day, every day of the year. If you cannot understand this...then you truly cannot understand anything about the cost to Royal Mail concerning employing Angard agency staff. Angard staffing themselves get paid on a pro rata basis with the posties...and you still have'nt paid Angard their cut for supplying them in the first place. The cost to Royal Mail every year - astronomical!! There has to be a better way...and I believe they are now finally waking up to that fact. Time will tell no doubt...time always does. P.s one very important thing to remember about RMG: they react very slowly due to being entrenched in their ways...a hangover from 500 years of being a state owned governmental department. In other words -- extremely slow on the uptake! Lol...

No good trying to predict where this will find support now...too late for all that. Panic has set in!

The cost of Angard far outstrips the hourly cost of a postie. One of the reasons RMG employed so many agency staff is that, historically, a huge amount of their work was seasonal...and I don't just mean Christmas. Not anymore though! I am sure everyone here is more than aware that with the changing market, parcel dominated, the bread and butter business of Royal Mail is changing too. It will pay RMG to have a bigger, directly employed workforce in the short to mid term: far wider range of skills...for example: being able to operate the dock leveling, drive side-loaders, forklifts and York-movers...among other many various things. Yes indeed! Times are a changing. And on that note -- good night!

It costs way and above more money to employ Angard. I often pondered long and hard at the hourly cost...in all truth I have'nt got a clue. You say a couple of quid on top of their hourly rate - rubbish!! Double it and add some...you might then be nowhere near it.

As always, Fruitster, you quote out of context...but your good at that are you not? Regarding buying at 2.15: I simply made the point that even at 2.15 if the strike then came about you would be paying to much for the shares as they would be worth considerably less several days later. You can understand that surely?

By the way forget to mention: Manpower are paid even more than Angard - whew!!

Interesting fact about Manpower: It was originally started by a RMG executive...I believe it was registered in his wife's name to avoid any conflict of interest -- talk about keeping it in the family! This may well have been the chief reason for starting up Angard. Manpower used to dominate as far as agency workers connected to Royal Mail...soon after Angard started supplying staff Manpower vanished completely off the floor. Wonder why? Lol.

RMG have finally woken up to the fact that it is cheaper to employ full time staff than employ Angard agency workers...or any other agency for that matter. After working for 12 weeks (Angard), as Fruitster rightly comments, you attain a higher rate of pay...however, it is after working for 12 months that you reach the highest level of pay. For instance: approx £14.60 an hour for the night shift -- a fair bit more for London rates! Imagine how much it must cost to have to pay Angard to supply staff? Angard have not only to pay their agency workers but their own staff...as well as the day to day costs of running the business itself. The costs must be enormous! One other thing about working for Angard as well: holiday pay. Not as generous as it used to be in my days with the company but still very helpful: the more hours you work the more holiday pay you accumulate...very useful indeed when you have a slack couple of weeks. Oh...and before I forget: the pension. When the statutory new employers pension scheme came about in 2013 this added considerable more cost to employing agency staff...when I left in 2016 I received £900.00. A nice little bit of severance pay!

As for employing more full time staff. Well, at the new hub in Warrington, RMG have just taken on at least 120 new posties...they have recruited at least several hundred in Warrington alone over the last 3 years. Looks like RMG might just finally be waking up. P.s The union love it! As soon as I got my first Short Term Contract they fell over themselves to rush down and sign me up - lol!

No ****, Fruitster...

Like I formerly stated: it will be Manpower stood down...not Angard. And so they should be!!

Like I mentioned: Reeds might have had something to do with Angard right at the very start...but I do not believe that is the case any longer. Yes, when working for Angard, I did have a pay number, and I was paid weekly from Angard who used a payroll company; cannot exactly recall the name of the company but it enabled you to log on to their site to view each weeks hours, your P60 and various other useful, personal tax details.

Uncertain as to if it was Reeds that were the people that first created Angard staffing agency, solely for RMG requirements, or if it was first created by RMG; I think the likelihood is when RMG first started the agency they used Reeds to recruit...and then shortly afterwards assembled their own staff to deal with future recruitment. I know the head office is situated in Northampton...I was one of the very first people to work for them when the company first started in about 2011 - 2012: Angard Staffing Solutions Ltd is the dedicated recruitment partner for Royal Mail Group; they supply flexible staffing solutions to meet Royal Mail requirements...and only RMG.

As of late it would seem RMG have gone back to the former agency they used before Angard came about - "Manpower". The reason being it was perceived, rightly or wrongly, that Angard workers might be sympathetic towards the posties grievances and impending Christmas strike. This is an absolute disgrace! Angard supply lots of hardworking and industrious staff...and they have had to stand to one side as their hours have been slashed and they look on as a shadow work force now receives many of their available hours - disgusting!! Shame on you Royal Mail...but there again RMG are so far up their own arse they really don't give a **** -- there's gratitude now!!

As for one of the CWU's preconditions regarding talks with Royal Mail: I think you will all find that "standing down" the newly recruited workers refers to Manpower...not Angard staff.

Well, HeresHopin, and I will assume you are referring to me, yes I am a share holder (long term)...but I am also a realist. I am invested in IQE not for the short term trading opportunities but for what I reasonably (reasonable to my way of thinking I should add) believe could one day be a highly profitable and lucrative business...providing all this much touted new technology begins very soon to be, in greater and greater amounts, adopted of course.

Testing that 50p now, Gotrader. Reckon sub 45p is on the cards.

Not at all. I, like a lot of other investors here, am also showing a paper loss...nothing surprising about any of that. The rather poor trading update just vindicates what I have been stating for a while now...that IQE is overvalued. If it settles around the mid forties to 50s, and holds, I am more than happy to top up...there again we might eventually see mid 30s. Who knows? I know one thing though -- this not for the fainthearted! Lol...

Wow!! Regarding my post Sunday night just gone: I reckon I must be some sort of oracle...pity I don't take my own advice. Lol P.s Lets look on the bright side and say there might be the chance to pick up some cheap shares? Mid forties coming here I reckon...

I am always accused, well, quite often accused, of being pessimistic when commenting on this board about IQE; I think, whether you are aware of it or no, TonyBoy, you have just put your finger, probably unknowingly, right on the button with that posed question of yours in your closing comment: "Meanwhile, do we get the haunting prospect of back to the 50s"? I stated sometime back, that in my opinion the 50s was about fair value, all things considered, for the s.p. Why should it be any higher? Please, anyone out there feel free to enlighten me as to, in your opinion, why it should be considerably higher than that. I myself can perfectly understand why IQE has attracted so many detractors and short positions over the years. It has spent vast sums of money, a lot of it ours, in getting an enviable infrastructure into place...but not on the back of increasing orders -- but rather in anticipation of orders linked to new technology! That technology, as of now, has not yet been rolled out in any appreciable amount...that is why the constantly repeated phrase: "Jam for tomorrow" is repeatedly used in conjunction with IQE: and IQE it is just that -- a HOPE share! We all fervently hope that IQE will finally come good; but there again there are other competitors out there all vying for the same markets...we just need to hope (that most important word again) that the new technologies begin to be adopted at a greater and greater pace -- otherwise we might all be waiting an awful long time!!

Having read the latest intercourse (Facebook update) between the CWU and Royal Mail I am inclined to find some comfort in all of that...let us fervently hope that both parties can come together in meaningful discussions leading to a mutually profitable and agreeably binding solution that is beneficial to all.

Very relieved myself, obviously, that the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) scenario has not taken place; but in the long run, as you know only too well...this changes nothing of course.

It means some peoples suddenly worsening responses and life threatening physiological conditions, some people on here that is if that particular event was to come about, would give their spouses cause to be desperately ringing 911 again. Lol

It means some peoples suddenly worsening responses and life threatening physiological conditions, some people on here that is if that particular event was to come about, would give their spouses cause to be desperately ringing 911 again. Lol