Postal workers speak out

Job vacancies are not being filled and cost-cutting measures are damaging local delivery claimed one postal delivery worker who is "totally ashamed" of what is happening in the industry.

"I cannot identify myself other than to say I am a regular postal worker who delivers mail to the residents of Bexhil having worked for Royal Mail many years now.

"The problems at Bexhill delivery office are replicated all over the country. We have all been issued with a preference exercise to buy down our hours or ask for redundancy.

"The service we provide the public is suffering. Undertraining and an increasing reliance on part-time or casual staff is having a detrimental effect on our reliability.

"Misdelivered letters are all too common now; doorstepping of packets is becoming the norm. Letter intended to be redirected to new addresses are going to old addresses. Postal workers are running across gardens, leaving red elastic bands all over the roads and paths of our beautiful town. Postal workers are being asked to carry mail in their own private cars even.

"So I beg of your readers please where you have a legitimate complaint about the service of the Royal Mail locally please contact Royal Mail's customer services or the local manager direct with your complaint, so they can see how their national actions are having a local impact."

Postal workers recently held public awareness events to draw attention to the Government's proposal on part-privatising the service.

Local employees campaigned in Devonshire Square and also attended a gathering in Hastings to highlight their concerns about the future of their industry.

Another postal worker this week said: "We have six vacant positions after one postal worker was sacked a couple of weeks ago and another today...these vacancies are not being filled. They are looking for 300 hours which equates to about 7.5 full time jobs. Deliveries are now being carried out by managers on an increasingly frequent basis as we haven't got enough staff in the office to cope.

"This is also happening at Battle delivery office where they are close to balloting for industrial action. St Leonards and Hastings also are having to collapse the delivery of packets and parcels in order to deliver letters. It's chaos."

The Observer contacted Bexhill delivery office for a response from local management but none was forthcoming.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We urgently need to accelerate the pace of change in the face of a 10 per cent decline in UK mail volumes in all our 1,600 delivery offices nationwide, with the aim of maintaining customer service.

"However, we do not anticipate any redundancies in Bexhill delivery office.

"Nevertheless, we face real challenges; the decline in traditional mail use, the impact of the economic recession and ever stronger competition.

"This is alongside the unavoidable need to modernise the ways we work and the technology we use. We are making changes in a calm, measured and structured way, inviting continuous involvement and dialogue with our unions and our people, and seeking to minimise service disruption to our customers, whilst we change."