Wildcat UK Royal Mail strikes 'undermined' postal targets
Progress in the reliability of letter deliveries has been “undermined” by last month’s unofficial strikes that led to a huge backlog of post, the Royal Mail said.
First-class letter reliability reached 92.7% in the three months to September, ahead of the 92.5% target and the best performance for 15 years.
But chief executive Adam Crozier warned that the wildcat strikes had put the year-end targets, taken next March, at risk.
He said: “These results reflect our commitment to improving performance but unfortunately, progress has since been undermined by the unofficial strike action.
“The vast majority of our people, around 80 worked normally during the unofficial action but the disruption in the South East and some other parts of the country had an impact on our whole network.”
Mr Crozier said the full impact of the strikes on quality-of-service performance figures were not yet known but would be “significant”, as the backlog took some weeks to clear.
He said: “It’s a frustrating set-back after such a strong start to the year but we’re recovering performance as quickly as possible.”
About 98.7% of second-class mail was delivered on time in the same three-month period, against a target of 98.5 while the Royal Mail’s special delivery service performed at 99.1%, against a target of 99%.
