Bognor postal staff fear job losses

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Workers at Bognor Regis Post office have expressed considerable fears over potential job losses and major cuts to employment hours.
All 118 staff at the town's office were expected to continue with strike action (at the time of going to press) on Friday and Monday.

At the heart of the dispute is Royal Mail's modernisation plans, which the company believe will result in a more efficient service.

But post office staff believe new sorting machinery to be rolled-out next year will not be introduced at Bognor.

The nearest machine is thought to be being sited at Waterlooville, meaning letters being passed round the postal system across the south coast before returning to the Bognor office for local deliveries.

Paul Mountain, the Bognor CWU representative, said the new changes could have a 'massive effect' on staff.

He said: "We have reason to believe when Royal Mail introduce the new sorting machines it will turn the postal service for this town into the bare minimum they are required to provide.

"We believe with the new network what's looking increasingly likely is that Portsmouth Mail Centre will close, with Southampton becoming an inward mail centre and Bournemouth becoming an outward one. And Waterlooville will have the sorting machine for Bognor.

"Along with this they want to move from three collections a day down to one.

"With the machinery being used by Royal Mail in this way it will mean that 60 per cent of the mail for the town will arrive at Bognor early morning. The problem is that the other 40 per cent will not arrive until lunchtime."

He added: "Royal Mail is not willing to go back to two deliveries a day. They want deliveries to start once all mail has arrived in an office.

"It is looking like Royal Mail will make delivery spans two hours long with the mail being delivered between 1pm and 3pm.

"This would mean doubling the amount of staff, but these staff would only be on three-hour-a-day contracts. So for us we are fighting for our jobs because nobody working there now could survive on three hours a day."