Footage has shown how letters have piled up at a Nottinghamshire delivery office. Letters can be seen stacked up in pigeon holes at a Royal Mail delivery office in Nottinghamshire on Monday, December 12.
A Royal Mail worker, speaking anonymously, said mail at the Arnold delivery office had not been delivered for the previous six days. The employee claimed he and his colleagues had been told to concentrate on delivering tracked parcels in the build up to Christmas, leaving birthday cards, hospital letters and bills at the office.
They added: "The whole office is the same. It's a complete mess." Royal Mail recently stated they treat all items of mail with equal importance after West Bridgford and Lady Bay residents alleged a postal worker told them they had been told to only handle parcels and to ignore letters, leading to people missing appointments, waiting for cheques and other important documents.
Read more: Royal Mail state 'every item of mail is important' after concerns of prioritising parcels
The footage shows the scene days before members of the Communication Workers Unions (CWU) took part in strike action on (December 15), with two more planned for December 23 and December 24. A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Christmas is our busiest time of year. In a typical December, we deliver 50 per cent more parcels than usual. With Christmas cards, a quarter of the stamped mail sent in the whole year is sent in December.
"The CWU’s planned strike action is holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country. The CWU have engineered these strikes to take place at a time where it causes maximum disruption for our customers – by refusing to talk about change for months and stalling over ACAS for a month. We are doing everything we can to deliver Christmas for our customers.”
But CWU labelled the wider delivery difficulties facing customers a result of what they said was Royal Mail's "stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect."
The CWU and Royal Mail have held talks in recent weeks but remain deadlocked as workers prepare to join picket lines outside sorting and delivery offices across the UK. CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect. Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks.
“But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families. This can be resolved if Royal Mail begin treating their workers with respect, and meet with the union to resolve this dispute.”
Customers have been asked to post their items as early as possible in advance of these days for the best chance of items being delivered before Christmas, as collections from post-boxes and post offices will be less frequent on strike days. The final days to post 1st class and 1st class signed for items was December 16, and December 21 for special delivery guaranteed items.
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