Time to Act Over More COVID 19 outbreaks

[merson01]

In the last few weeks, over thirty postal workers at six different delivery offices have tested positive for Covid 19. Recently Royal Mail confirmed that ten postal workers at the Bathgate Delivery Office in Scotland are now self-isolating at home after testing positive for Coronavirus. These cases come off the back of a case in a Fife sorting office in September, and three workers at the Dunfermline office were sent home to isolate.

It has been confirmed that two workers have tested positive at its Leeds depots. Four postal workers at Scarborough's Royal Mail delivery office have tested positive for Covid-19.

Another office at Hastings has had to undergo a deep clean after a further outbreak of COVID 19 amongst staff. Hastings had a previous case in July after a member of staff tested positive. Four postal workers at a Liverpool delivery office have tested positive for Coronavirus. It is not known how many workers are quarantined awaiting test results.

Royal Mail Platitudes

In what has become almost like groundhog day when an outbreak is reported. Royal Mail issue a perfunctory statement regarding safety and health. Once this announcement is made, it is business as usual. Nothing is heard how sick postal workers who are off work are and how they caught the virus only that they are 'recuperating.'

"Royal Mail takes the health and safety of its colleagues, its customers and the local communities in which we operate very seriously. "They are now recuperating at home, and we wish them a speedy recovery. We have carried out an intensive clean of the building. "We are currently processing mail as normal at our Bathgate office. The office is open as normal."

Well, this is hardly a "normal" situation, and the longer it goes on, it is only a matter of time before postal workers start adding to the four dead postal workers already.

The situation facing postal workers is reaching a critical mass. Royal Mail is making large profits from parcel deliveries while postal workers are falling sick. The last few weeks alone have seen the share price go through the roof again as postal workers become sicker.

If this crisis has proved one thing, it is the inability of the CWU(Communication Workers Union) to protect its workforce. The negotiations currently underway have the air of fiddling while Rome burns or even arranging deckchairs on the Titanic. The role of the CWU has been crucial during this pandemic. There is no way that Royal Mail would be operating, let alone making money if it were not for the role of the CWU bureaucracy. The CWU offered postal workers up as the fifth emergency service, and postal workers are now increasingly needing to use the real emergency services.

It is clear that the very limited safety measures in place are not working and are putting postal workers lives in danger. Again it will not be long before more postal workers are added to the four deaths already. I call on workers who are not happy with the COVID-19 dangers they have been subjected to by unions and management at Royal Mail and want to fight the restructure and the dangerous conditions to contact the Socialist Equality Party at sep@sep.org.uk

[biggiehud]

How many are ILL

[merson01]

no one knows, soon as the positive test comes in all information after that goes into a black hole. There is no info on how ill these postal workers are

[nutcracker]

Damn the socialists called something right for once.

Although as ever they’re not good with numbers.... I make it 37 deaths not 4 for Royal Mail employees up to the end of May in England & Wales, according to the office for national statistics data here

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... ndandwales" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This does not account also for our colleagues who’ve been seriously ill and/or quite a few more who’ve lost relatives. The covid clusters in offices now show that the working environment within Royal Mail has probably contributed to these outcomes.

[nutcracker]

Also bear in mind those figures are for up to the end of may, they do not include any deaths incurred in June, July, Sept or Oct. They also do not include deaths in Scotland. Thus RM employee deaths are likely to be higher than 37 so far into this pandemic.

I’ve also made the assumption that category 9211 postal workers is defined by the office for national statistics as having 140000 employees & so is basically RM...happy to have that assumption proved wrong?

[nutcracker]

Further numbers.... office for national statistics random sampling puts uk antibodies present in 6% of the population. With a 150000 employee workforce I make it that about 9000 coronavirus cases within Royal Mail so far in the pandemic, give or take a few thousand???

[merson01]

Are these deaths from COVID 19 or just deaths in service

[nutcracker]

Are these deaths from COVID 19 or just deaths in service

Just covid.

Remember Royal Mail has an exceptionally old work force. According to this 2011 freedom of information request the average age of RM staff was 44 & 80% male. That was 10 years ago and we haven’t recruited much so that average age is a lot higher now....We have a lot of employees over 50, over 60 and over 65....

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... Q.pdf.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the positive side for Royal Mail many occupations such as taxi drivers, bus drivers, building trades etc have faired much worse proportionally.