Understaffing big issue in Post Offices
CWU members in many Post Offices have told the union that Post Offices are very understaffed. Post has not replaced staff as they leave. Relief staffing is inadequate. We agree. That’s why your CWU national office took the issue of understaffing to FWC.
The short term goal was to stop Post from cutting staff every time a ROM was done. We established a working group of CWU representatives to work with Post to improve ROM to make it fairer and easier to use. Staff should now record the real times for everything that happens in Post Offices. The system of recording has been simplified and will soon be able to be done by a stroke on the key board.
In the longer term we would like to bring Post Office workers together to tackle issues of understaffing locally. Post Office members want to raise concerns, but cannot because they feel “isolated and afraid”. We want to empower Post Office workers to bring concerns to their managers as a group, instead of as individuals, so they will feel “less intimidated”.
We would like to do an audit with members of all unpaid time Post Office workers do and when relief staff is not provided. Post has given commitments to providing adequate relief staffing in the enterprise agreement. And we want Post to comply with the agreement.
