POL00448605
POL00448605
From: Brenda Brooks f
Sent: 8/6/2024 7:13
To: Saf ismail I GRO
Subject: Note counter / manual note counting penalties
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Dear Saf,
Could you please bring to the Board my issue about the new ‘operational excellence bonus’, particularly
any errors from the REM centre going down as a penalty.
No Postmaster makes any errors deliberately!
We are not provided with counting machines to help in this matter, most cash is counted by hand.
Sometimes in Branch we will count £250,000 in a week!(I would like to see the board members do this by
hand and not make a single mistake)
We should not be penalised for this especially with financial penalties with the new operational
excellence!
I have worked on the counter for 50 years and find this one step too far! We strive to get everything
right continuously.
We are sorry for mistakes as you all were over the horizon scandal (should work both ways).
My local MP Jonathan Reynolds is a frequent customer in my office (he lives in Stalybridge) and rest
assured he will be hearing about this! Potentially another mistake by the board!
It makes me and my staff feel undervalued and sometimes I think the Rems are counted incorrectly at the
REM centre, the staff are not infallible and also make mistakes!I have worked there too! This is not a
guess!
Seems like give them a few overs back for say £10 a time and they will lose the bonus! Win win for the
Post Office once again, it’s a disgrace.
I must add I’ve also opened a Banking Hub(temp) and unfortunately my note counter had been intercepted by
pirates in Sudan, so I had to open my Hub without a note counter, I have since had to buy myself one on
Amazon, at cost to me again. They are now in the country but it won’t be with me for another week or so
but I’m puzzled by this because if it was taken to my post office I could offer you next day delivery
with 4 different carriers. Please make it make sense!?
what is wrong with you people? Get out into normal offices see how hard we work for such little reward, I
don’t think you understand the amount of cash in your network that is hand counted. And yes humans
sometimes make mistakes.
My Branch has experienced dedicated excellent staff who go above and beyond for all customers to enable
the post offices brand to be outstanding .
My staff are all on minimum wage and the errors that are made are human error and minimal !
This aspect of branch performance should be discounted until every branch has an adequate note counter jie
a TCR, it should also be considered how much cash an office handles and the margin of error decided from
that.
I would love this to be discussed at your board meeting, I’m not sure how happy the general public would
be te hear that Subpostmasters are yet again being penalised for not having correct working equipment to
lo the job.
Yours,
Brenda Brooks
Postmaster Stalybridge
Stalybridge Banking Hub operator