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Posties: now we face court threat
Union says delivery staff have received ‘wilful delay’ legal warning as strike looms
UNDER-FIRE postal workers across Camden will join a planned national strike tomorrow (Friday) amid claims they are being threatened with criminal prosecution for failing to complete their rounds.
Punishment for “wilful delay of mail”, classed as gross misconduct and an immediate sackable offence, is normally reserved for postal staff who deliberately hide or destroy mail.
But union chiefs say Royal Mail managers are threatening workers with the strict penalty if they return from daily rounds with undelivered mail.
Postal staff in Camden are locked in a bitter dispute with managers over increases to bag weight and the length of their daily “walks”.
Tony Davis, Communication Workers Union (CWU) branch area rep, said: “Our members are being told if they don’t complete their rounds they could be done for wilful delay – that’s a criminal offence. It means if a postman comes back from a round with post still in his bag they are told that is wilful delay of the mail.
“No one has been sacked for it yet – but it is getting very close.”
In January, Royal Mail bosses reduced workers’ paid time by two hours a day – a move that Mr Davis said has created an “impossible task” for staff. It has led to 17 days of strikes at offices in Hampstead, Kentish Town, Rathbone Place in the West End and Kilburn since July.
Mr Davis said: “The problem is that people see the strike and don’t understand why. It is about terms and conditions but also about respect. We are being treated like kids every day. It is awful. There is constant bullying.”
Two years ago, the CWU agreed with Royal Mail to thousands of job cuts at depots across the country in exchange for changes to contract terms and better sorting technology.
Members went down to four days a week but were given an extra two hours a day to complete a new rota of daily duties, which typically begin at 6am with sorting and dividing mail.
But early this year, Royal Mail changed the system back to a five-day week and cut workers’ paid time back to eight hours a day without introducing new technology.
CWU says its members cannot complete their new duties in eight hours. Rounds are now taking four-to-five hours – as opposed to three-and-a-half hours – with a much heavier burden. Mr Davis said members in Kilburn were lugging postbags weighing at least 100 kilos – more than seven stone.
In Parliament, Labour MPs Glenda Jackson and Frank Dobson signed an Early Day Motion on Monday calling for the government to help settle the dispute.
Mr Dobson said: “The postal workers have lost a lot of money already through strikes and they know they could lose a lot more. They must be desperate if they have voted so overwhelmingly for a national strike.”
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The CWU is again saying one thing and doing another – publicly they say they want modernisation yet they write regularly to members saying union policy is to oppose change on the ground.
“These changes are all covered by the 2007 Agreement on Pay and modernisation, which the CWU leadership signed in the presence of the TUC but which they are now reneging on in a way that clearly hurts our customers and our people and damages Royal Mail.” |
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