One of the more insidious things coming out of the stinking
deal between Royal Mail and the CWU has been using PDA’s to monitor and control
Postal workers inside and outside the workplace. Not even George Orwell and his
big brother could have imagined the extent to which Royal Mail could control
the behaviour of postal workers, even to the point of using the data to sack
any postal worker they deemed to have stepped out of line.
The Complete acceptance by the CWU(Communication Workers
Union) of the use of these PDA’s to punish and control workers is a new milestone
in its integration into corporate management. As Laura Tiernasn points out, “Appendix
5 of the union-company agreement outlined measures for enhanced “performance
management” of staff to deliver “improved business performance” through
increased “data use” from PDAs. The CWU’s assurances that PDAs would “not be
used to de-humanise the workplace” and would “not be used to track individuals
in real time” have been exposed as worthless.
I don’t need to explain what these handheld computers can do
to postal workers. Still, the wider public has little comprehension of how Royal
Mail controls and terrorises postal workers and is using them as a means to get
rid of the most courageous and militant postal workers to bring in a two-tier
workforce that is more compliant with their aims and objectives.
I would encourage all postal workers to attend Sunday’s Postal Workers Committee Meeting. The CWU is dead. Let us bury it. It is nothing but an arm of corporate management. The only thing that can stop Royal Mail and the CWU from pursuing their aims of turning Royal Mail into an Amazon-like company is the PWC(|Postal Workers Committee).
