More post staff have grievance

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MORE postal workers are threatening to strike over proposals to transfer work elsewhere.

Royal Mail has unveiled plans to close its cash transit depot in Stoke, which employs 15 people.

Union representatives say seven workers have been asked to transfer to Sheffield, Chester or Birmingham, with the rest facing redundancy.

But bosses at Royal Mail insist there will be no compulsory redundancies, and everyone who wants to stay with the company will be offered the chance to do so.

Yesterday, workers staged a two-hour protest outside the depot.

Communication Workers' Union (CWU) representative Kevin Clarke, who has worked at the depot for 24 years, warned strike action would be "inevitable" unless bosses at Royal Mail agreed to meet with them for discussions.

Mr Clarke said: "We've been told seven of us can move to Chester, Sheffield or Birmingham, and the rest will face redundancy.

"None of the workers want to move out of Stoke. Everyone who works here lives within about four miles of the depot, and they don't want to have to start making anything up to a 100-mile round trip each day.

"Apart from making their working day longer by two or three hours, it will also cost them more money in petrol.

"Industrial action is the last thing we want to happen, but unless Royal Mail comes and meets us at the negotiating table, then it is looking inevitable."

The office, which is based within Royal Mail's Leek Road depot, is responsible for making sure Post Office branches are stocked with cash as well as items such as stamps and tax discs.

It also deals with clients such as retail giant Arcadia, which owns Topshop and Burton.

Worker Derek Austin has worked at the depot for 10 years. His wife, Margaret, has worked there for six years.

Derek, aged 38, said: "We've got a six-year-old daughter so we are quite concerned about the proposals, because both of our incomes come from the same place."

Workmate Lee Dunn, aged 36, said: "Moving to Sheffield or Birmingham would be a massive lifestyle change for all of us."

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "Post Office Ltd continually reviews its network of operational depots to ensure that they remain fit for purpose and are as operationally efficient as possible. As a result of such a review the decision was taken to close the depot at Stoke.

"It has been made clear to our 15 front line people who work at the depot that there is no compulsory redundancy and everyone who wishes to stay within Royal Mail Group will be given an opportunity to do so."

Meanwhile, distribution staff at the Leek Road depot are continuing their strike indefinitely. Royal Mail workers are on their fourth day of industrial action today.

The official strike is over the future of 100 staff who have been told their jobs will be moved to Wolverhampton. Only 18 will stay in Stoke.