I saw a Sign
Have you ever been going somewhere and thought, this is not meant to be……..
Yesterday 11th of January 2010, I was proceeding in a westerly direction. Now the traffic reports said the East bound A14 was jammed because of a lorry crash. So there I am on the west bound carriageway parked in the outside lane for 35 minutes alongwith hundreds of other vehicles, in the snow with our engines switched off, no compass but I did get A level Geography.
The purpose of my journey, you ask, a reasonable question and it was to attend a grievance procedure meeting. What sort of grievance? True I have many to choose from, spoilt for choice in these later years of my life, I know, but it was with my former employers, Crouch Logistics, whose Head Office is in Rugby and I was going to tackle them about their unauthorised deductions from my hard earned wages before Christmas.
Crouch are the subcontractors for UPS the American Courier Company whose depot is in Northampton. It was in their van and depot that I spent my waking hours for 5 months before Christmas, until I walked out on pay day December the 18th as they were not going to steal my wages anymore. This the 2nd time they had done it out of 5, and they also refused to discuss their unauthorised actions. So…………that is a grievance, taking £200 out of my pay packet, meant that for the Christmas rush when demand exceeded supply, I was working 12 hours a day for £41 net.
So……….. I left this resignation letter on their notice board:
The Worse Job I have ever had…………………..
I am no longer prepared to work 60 hours a week for Crouch Logistics, and not knowing how much money I will actually take home .
The reason for Crouch’s poor performance in the eyes of their UPS contractual masters, is their fundamental and total reliance on the hard working drivers. This job cannot be done on the cheap to maximise profits.
Organisation is poor, management are not proactive, but reactive and do not have any idea in advance of the workload for their drivers each day. The attitude is “it is in your area so you do it”, whether it is a timed deliveries, standard deliveries, or collections, regardless of quantity, bulk, type of premises, in zone location, traffic and access.
All those considerations are irrelevant to management, but not to the driver who faces penalties when demand exceeds supply. Management can just pass UPS penalties for poor performance on to the drivers. Penalties which are often false, unauthorised, deducted as a fait accompli and are therefore illegal, contrary to Section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Sticks are plenty, carrots are non existent.
I challenge the management to do this job lawfully, within the hours specified in the EU working time directive and making a delivery every 5 minutes, including driving in conformity with the Road Traffic Acts, as this is what I and others have been asked to do.
Is it any wonder that more than half the 44 drivers have left this workplace in the 5 months I have been here and now its my turn to leave. I would rather have no job than this job.
Now the reaction to that public notice was instant hostility from Chris Crouch the governor and winner of the Leicestershire New Business Award for 2008. He bombarded my mobile phone, and then threatened me with court and the police, texts and even an answaphone message left on Christmas Eve. However bully boy bluff tactics do not scare me, and I am now waiting for a hearing at the employment tribunal as I have accused Crouch of 4 offences, in order to get my money back.
So, why go to a grievance procedure, when you are no longer an employee. Well the letter I got was quite conciliatory, and with hindsight was probably a standard letter, just with new dates and new names. It did state “so we can answer properly”. It transpired that they were ill prepared, said nothing apart from “well you signed the contract, which said fines for incorrect deliveries”. To which my retort has always been, “yes but you don’t know if that delivery was on my van, and also you have deducted fines for deliveries before 9am, when geographically, no Crouch driver can make them that early because of the distance we travel, and you have deducted fines for deliveries not even in my post code area.” Like always and par for the course there was no response.
So the meeting was a sham a farce, but I had to go through with it, else I could have been criticised at any employment tribunal. I guess the meeting was file “better late than never” or “too little too late” or “wasted time” or even “bizarre” as for 45 minutes I just elaborated about what they had been given to them in writing point by point rebuttal of their unauthorised deductions for 2 months This time they wrote it down and listed with painful expressions.
It does annoy me, that people who are not as bright as others, can hold down important jobs, whereas the likes of me phone up this morning again to apply for Job Seekers allowance. It’s sad but true, and I suppose that is my biggest grievance.
Gissajob, I can do that (better), maybe I should do the traffic report or the weather, both are riddled with errors, the white stuff has finally gone after 3 weeks of a mini ice age. There were days when I did not venture out as the “storm” was brewing, but, it came to nothing, it is well that these guys do not brew tea !!!
As for the A14 dual carriageway, well ironically it was a “Crouch” (not related apparently) tow truck that pulled a Sainsbury’s articulated lorry out of the rearranged and demolished central reservation. As it passed me proceeding in its easterly direction, us westerly folk, could carry on late in our journeys. HOWEVER…………. I had to come back, didn’t I, in an easterly direction, no chance, the road was now closed, (geee aren’t our Highways Agency Men so wonderful!!!)
So Via 2 sides of a triangle (see we had geography and industrial relations, now its maths (pay attention, don’t doze off, almost at the end now) I drove back via Market Harborough only to park up on the A5199, because all the other lemmings have thought of that one too. 4 hours out of the house, for no reason at all, apart from one free cup of coffee and use of their downstairs toilet. Hi Ho, but it’s not off to work I go.
Until next time………………oh by the way, why do civil servants have no sense of humour? “I am a gatherer of information, my job is not to give information” the Job Centre Minus guy said as he apologised for his slow computer, and when I said “perhaps your hamster’s exercise wheel needs some WD40”, well lead balloon time, not even a glimmer of a response, bit like Crouch management, hold on I will punch myself……ouch!!! Yes I do exist!!! Well that’s a relief (for some haha!!)
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