Firms counting cost of UK postal walk-outs

Businesses are still counting the cost of postal strikes and say the action has the potential to lose them thousands of pounds. Royal Mail workers walked out in two 24-hour strikes followed by a campaign of staggered action, in which each division was allocated a different day to revolt in a bid to cause continuous disruption.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) were protesting at job losses which they say will come from modernization of the firm and have rejected a 2.5 per cent pay offer.

Royal Mail, which has been losing business to rivals since the postal market was opened to competition, says the changes are needed for it to stay competitive and vowed to keep delivering mail during the action.

Smaller businesses have felt the biggest impact from the strikes as orders and deliveries have been delayed.

Burslem-based Lorna Bailey Artware depends on Royal Mail to bring in responses to its mailshots.

Director Lionel Bailey said postal strikes have the potential to cost the company thousands of pounds.

He said: "All our business relies on the post so nothing happens when Royal Mail employees go on strike.

"The worst case is when they strike on a Friday. It means our post doesn't go out until Monday and the customers don't get it until Thursday. That's an extra four days to send something out, and if they go on strike again it takes another four days to get a reply.

"Potentially, it could cost us thousands of pounds. When mail shots go out they can turn over GBP 20,000. If it is late, it puts back the manufacturing and painting – all very problematic.

"It puts us in an awkward situation because we can use Parcelforce for larger parcels, but we don't want to pass extra charges on to the customers.

"The last thing you want when you have got a business to run is to have to chase up the post and keep up with the strikes."

Toy and book supplier Everything Dinosaur, based in Middlewich, relies heavily on the post for its mail order service.

Owner Mike Walley said the biggest concern was not knowing which division was on strike each day.

He said: "There can be a collection from a local post office, but we won't know if the mail will be sent out to other centres because of a lack of information and understanding of what is going on.

"We have done everything we can to advise customers and get out urgent parcels, but it is hard to provide them with information if we don't have it ourselves.

"We are fortunate to have some very helpful staff in the post offices near us and they have tried to tell us what part is being interrupted by the strikes, but they don't always have the information."

Mr Walley has introduced a new service using couriers in an attempt to overcome disruptions but said this is costing the company money.

He added: "We're using couriers for some of the larger parcels, but it's costing us money because we have offered it at a discounted rate.

"We find more and more people are wanting to use the service, though, because they are concerned about getting items for things like parties.

"I worry how much the strikes will affect business because if people loose their faith in Royal Mail they may stray from using mail order."

Major employers have experienced inconveniences, but have been able to step around major disruption. Waterford Wedgwood, which employs about 700 office and distribution staff at sites across North Staffordshire, has been able to increase its use of couriers to ensure minimum disruption.

A spokesman said: "Wedgwood uses a variety of national and international courier firms for its external mail and purchases as well as Royal Mail services.

"We have been able to increase the use of these courier firms for urgent, time-critical mail during the dispute, and as such the day-to-day operation of the business has not been adversely affected."

A spokesman for JCB, the digger giant which employs more than 4,000 people at factories in Cheadle, Uttoxeter, and at its headquarters in Rocester, said: "The postal strikes did not have a significant impact on JCB's operations or on the business as a whole."

The national strikes have now been called off and Royal Mail and the CWU are expected to reach an agreement by September 4. Royal Mail has pledged to get services back to normal as quickly as possible.