Royal Mail postal services have "collapsed" on a Scottish island as the "mail piles up in the street" due to what they say is a lack of staff, time, and space to sort post and make deliveries, with agency staff parachuted in to help.
At least 30 postal workers have reportedly left their positions since 2019, with "mounting workloads and chronic understaffing" cited as the cause.
Read More: Scottish island declares Sundays off-limits to visitors
The Isle of Mull currently has 12 postal staff providing its services, and several of them told The Oban Times that "conditions are now the worst they have ever experienced."
One worker, with 17 years of experience, told the publication that they were "quitting this week."
They said: "It’s gotten completely horrible. I used to absolutely love my job, but I don’t see it getting better.
"None of the rounds have been audited, we’re not getting bigger vans or more staff, what can we do?
"With the amount of overtime that everybody is putting in, there is money for other people, they’re paying it to us."
Other staff highlight a reliance on "excessive overtime" rather than hiring, stating that "the money spent on overtime could instead fund additional workers."
Staff claimed to be on 20-hour contracts, but regularly work over 40 hours per week, and some staff are "tasked with two runs in one day."
One such run for north Mull means covering around 60 miles of mostly single-track roads in about two hours.
The crux of the issues stems from the mail arriving from Oban reportedly not landing on Mull via CalMac ferry until 10.45am, meaning there's a "race against time" to deliver and collect mail before making the next sailing back.
Royal Mail admitted that its service for the island "has not been where it should be" and that it has taken on agency staff to alleviate the strain while it "attracts new recruits."
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said in response to these concerns: "We know how important a reliable postal service is for communities on Mull and we recognise that service has not been where it should be.
“We are taking action to improve. We are actively recruiting for vacancies on the island, with interviews already taking place, and we have introduced a welcome bonus to help attract new recruits. In the meantime, we are using agency workers to assist with deliveries.”
We reported in October that Royal Mail was fined £21 million by the regulator Ofcom for missing its annual first- and second-class mail delivery targets, as millions of letters arrived late across the UK.
In 2022, we reported that residents on Islay had been left without postal deliveries for over a week, as posties said they'd been forced to leave due to working conditions that left them relying on handouts.
