Royal Mail: Business as Usual

According to Royal Mail’s payroll figures, 80 per cent of Royal Mail’s workforce was working as normal last Friday (26th July) and collections and deliveries are taking place as usual throughout the UK.

12 mail centres – the large sites where mail is processed before being sent to delivery offices – are working normally throughout today, including sites in Belfast, Southend, Liverpool, Carlisle, Peterborough, Glasgow, Hull, Aberdeen, Gloucester, Portsmouth, Crewe and Gatwick. Large numbers of colleagues have also reported to work at the remaining 59 centres and are working alongside management volunteers. No mail centers are expected to be closed.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said:” We are grateful to everyone who has chosen to work as normal and to get the mail to our customers as quickly as possible in spite of the Communication Workers Union call for industrial action.”

“The union’s publicly stated aim of causing maximum damage to Royal Mail, and therefore its customers, is completely at odds with its claim to support the postal service. Strike action will inevitably drive customers away from Royal Mail to rival operators and to the internet.”

Royal Mail says it remains “ready to meet the union leadership yet again at any time to explain its position and the tough reality of the completely open marketplace in which we now operate.”