Managers suspended at Edinburgh Mail Centre for hiding mail

[POSTMAN]

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Bosse ... 4509140.jp

TWO senior managers have been suspended from work at the Edinburgh Mail Centre after reports that tens of thousands of undelivered letters were found dumped inside a lorry trailer.
Sources say the bundles of post were discovered in the back of an articulated trailer at the Sighthill yard.

Union bosses have been made aware of the suspensions and staff are now awaiting the results of an internal inquiry.

Other managers have been sworn to secrecy over the suspensions, under threat of being disciplined themselves.

The Royal Mail has confirmed that two workers at the Sighthill centre are under investigation, although they would not confirm the nature of the allegations against them.

One postman at the centre, who asked not to be named, said: "The mail was being kept in a trailer. Apparently there were tens of thousands of letters due for delivery. Without those letters, it made it easier to hit delivery targets."

It is understood that independent auditors have visited the centre in the east of Edinburgh to examine their books.

Postal workers claimed that computers were taken away from the facility for closer inspection.

Another postman said: "Whenever we ask the lower level managers what is going on, they tell us that they can't say and if it leaks out, anyone talking about it will be disciplined."

Another colleague added: "There is a lot of pressure on management to meet targets. It's all Royal Mail seems to care about nowadays."

A Royal Mail spokesman would not be drawn on the nature of the investigation.

He said: "Two managers have been suspended at Edinburgh Mail Centre and internal investigations are continuing."

Rab Storrie, Scottish branch chair of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said he was aware of the suspensions but could not comment further.

Alan Alexander, chairman of Postwatch Scotland, said he would be investigating.

"We are concerned by this allegation and of course will be investigating this.

"We cannot comment on operational matters concerning Royal Mail, but we would be concerned if mail was not getting through and we would monitor the impact this might have on consumers."

In May, it was reported that nearly a fifth of Edinburgh and the Lothians' first class mail was not delivered on time last year.

Just 83.2 per cent of first class post was delivered the next working day in the EH post code area during 2007/08 – with last summer's strike action being blamed for the drop from 93.8 per cent in 2006-2007.

[POSTMAN]

Busted! the scum! Also reports i've had there are more managers involved at the MC and also others at DO's.

We have heard on royalmailchat that there could be more managers involved,they have allegedly been falsifying figures for mail traffic,altering audit figures after the audits had been done,and encouraging delivery office managers to also cook their books traffic figures at nearby delivery offices as well.

[Broxi51]

At last it comes out. Well done to all who exposed this to the newspapers.

[DGP1]

I'm not sure what the senior management expected!
People will do whatever they can just to keep their jobs and without sufficent staff/money they will resort to deception.

This should be a wake up call to the senior management to stop cutting jobs and start engaging the staff and start listening to what we say.

[The FraudSquad]

that was a regular "trick" at our office, the usual backlogged packets loaded up on to a lorry whenever the auditors were due and it went out for a spin till they went away

[norbert]

that was a regular "trick" at our office, the usual backlogged packets loaded up on to a lorry whenever the auditors were due and it went out for a spin till they went away

puts a interesting complexion on mail volumes going down thread- ? - where's Beliai's mate Mr "Merchant Ivory " ? - on the fluffy side ? or the "selective news " side

only suspended because the paper's have got hold of it ? - also the Official Secrets Act which RM hide behind - a public interest defence can be used ?

You have to look at a long line of cause and effect with the style of management which goes all the way back to our favourite Executives :lfo & :cfo for this sort of "creative accounting " & culture of fear

[Night Tonic]

No, thats the target concept. NHS is the same. It guarantees that people will lie because they're afraid of not meeting them. Postcomm set the targets, not Royal Mail bosses.

[k979aaa]

No, thats the target concept. NHS is the same. It guarantees that people will lie because they're afraid of not meeting them. Postcomm set the targets, not Royal Mail bosses.

So postcomm set the target's and they say mail volume's are falling but the manager's to meet must hide the mail!. Ah i get it they are offsetting the mail because thier is too much mail too hit postcomm's target's!.

[Broxi51]

http://www.hellmail.co.uk/postalnews/te ... 0&zoneid=3


Concerns over faked performance figures and alleged lack of care within Royal Mail delivery offices will be sobering news, particularly with the abolition of postal watchdog, Postwatch, just 12 days away.

The Scotsman reports that two Royal Mail managers at the Edinburgh Mail Centre have been suspended after Royal Mail discovered that tens of thousands of undelivered letters were found dumped inside a lorry trailer. It is thought that the letters had been hidden away to make delivery figures look better.

A similar enquiry is underway at the Bishop Street sorting office in Coventry (pictured above), over reports that delivery figures had been 'massaged' to meet national quality of service targets.

[Phantom]

No, thats the target concept. NHS is the same. It guarantees that people will lie because they're afraid of not meeting them. Postcomm set the targets, not Royal Mail bosses.

So postcomm set the target's and they say mail volume's are falling but the manager's to meet must hide the mail!. Ah i get it they are offsetting the mail because thier is too much mail too hit postcomm's target's!.

Correct! plus a lot of weighing has stopped in mail centres, which is a stupid way to count mail. Same thing happened in Chesterfield about 2 months ago.

[steviemac]

Delivery boys always complained actual post in the depot bore no relation to traffic figures given on the day. Umpteen yorks stacked up and DO managers say traffic down from day before/week before !! Our ex boss done delivery for years and knew the score, he also knew what we could cope with and often carried over the odd york out of common sense.
Although time consuming maybe DO should have a formula to roughly count traffic as part of a checks and balances daily audit. This would instantly show major discrepencies and trigger enquiry. Regardless of performance we always end up giving someone £200 million fine so may as well do it properly, lets face it easy nice few quid to top up gvt coffers.

[DGP1]

I hope Tman doesn't work in Edinburgh.

But I'm surprised that the MC managers didn't do what they do over here if they think there's too much mail they just load it onto a lorry and send it to the individual DO's (not counted and usually still in bags).

[lifesentence]

I would think that most managers will be sweating.... it depends how much they want to chop off. I expect there will be some retraining. We used to stand for honesty and integrity, this sort of attitude is very worrying.

[BELIAL]

Well if you've got a masterplan and implementation strategy with a neat simplistic justification to boot,what do you do when reality proves a tad awkward?
To be honest ,when an area manager tells you ,"you delivered X amount pa" ,and you say" no we weighed it and it was X + 20% pa" Then two weeks later you are told to stop weighing the mail, you've got to wonder!

Still now we just count trays ,it could backfire thanks to some switched on MC comrades,cheers

[Night Tonic]

At last it comes out. Well done to all who exposed this to the newspapers.

Except that it makes us look inept, even more business goes elsewhere and more jobs go down the pan....