Irish An Post staff accused of sabotage in bid to turn public against company

POSTAL workers are waging a campaign of sabotage and disruption against An Post, it was claimed last night.

The company said that the aim was to ratchet up the pressure ahead of threatened industrial action next week over An Post’s refusal to implement an agreed pay increase.

In the past month alone An Post has logged more than 30 incidents of what it believes are deliberate attempts to delay mail services in order to get the public “off side” with An Post by presenting it as being unable to run an efficient service.

He cited experienced drivers “getting lost” on their way to mail centres in Dublin, Cork, Portlaoise and Athlone.

Communications Workers’ Union general secretary Steve Fitzpatrick said that if allegations that his members had wilfully delayed mail were substantiated, he would not defend them.

However, he said that his union had been accused of intimidation, fraud and now sabotage and “there was not one shred of evidence the CWU was behind this”.

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Incidents logged by management included an experienced driver filling his vehicle with diesel before he set out to the Cork mail centre; a driver getting lost from Limerick to Cork before being discovered up a laneway with his mobile phone turned off; and drivers parking in industrial estates when they were due to arrive at the mail centre.

An Post spokeswoman Anna McHugh told the Irish Independent that because the mail processing system reached a peak in the evenings the delivery of mail to the mail centres was a “finely-tuned exercise”.

Where one mail delivery slot was missed, she said, it meant that the batch could not bedelivered the next day. The company also claims that absenteeism is running at 10pc per day while the company budgets for 4pc absenteeism, a figure acceptable to industry.

“We have absenteeism in mail centres as high as 24pc. It’s designed to intimidate not just the company and management but designed to get customers concerned and worried. What’s happening is quality of service is deteriorating,” Ms McHugh said.

The CWU plans industrial action from next Friday, November 4, which could lead to massive disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

An Post claims that a Labour Court recommendation guarantees workers their pay deal if they sign up to changes in practices.

Kathy Donaghy