NZ Post's "Incentive Payments" to Posties Unfair

18 August 2005

NZ Post's "Incentive Payments" to Posties is Unfair

A group of posties will publicly demonstrate their dissatisfaction with their employer, NZ Post, outside the Auckland Mail Centre at 167 Victoria Street West, Auckland between 3.00pm and 4.30pm on Thursday 18 August 2005.

The posties are angry that a Business Unit Incentive Plan (BUIP) payment to posties is allocated unfairly by NZ Post.

NZ Post funds the BUIP payment to its employees out of savings it makes from 'modifying' the employees' behaviour. If the employees successfully modify their behaviour to meet the company's targets and budget savings, then the company shares some of its savings with its employees.

The problem is that NZ Post does not distribute the rewards fairly to its employees. Some posties who have performed impeccably throughout the company's financial year (1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005) receive a much lower share of NZ Post's savings than some other posties whose performance has been unimpressive. And some posties receive a low payment because NZ Post management has not taken sufficient care in training and supporting new employees in their work place.

Despite strong submissions made to NZ Post by the employees' union, the Postal Workers Association, to make the BUIP payment system more fair, NZ Post has consistently rejected the employees' and union's submissions.

Compounding the posties' dissatisfaction is an outdated and inaccurate Work Measurement System that NZ Post uses to distribute the amount of work that posties are expected to do each day. Under the System, posties can be expected to work consistent amounts of overtime, in sometimes atrocious weather conditions, six days per week, carrying and delivering increasing amounts of mail, yet without their speed, productivity or accuracy being affected in any way.

A Greenlane postie, Mark Mattat, who tried to limit the amount and frequency of his overtime to a safe and reasonable level, was sacked recently by NZ Post. The company refused to acknowledge that daily compulsory overtime, amounting to more than 11 hours' overtime per week of hard physical work, could cause tiredness in an otherwise healthy person.

ENDS

.

© Scoop Media