Streatham postal service in chaos

[Geezer]

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news ... ns_strike/

2:33pm Thursday 10th September 2009
By Ben Thompson »


Savage cuts to the working hours of Streatham postmen has thrown the service into crisis and created a letter mountain backlog for addresses across SW16.

Postmen are being forced to finish rounds while working vastly reduced hours in the first stages of a sweeping restructuring of the service that is predicted to cause chaos, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has warned.

Since the changes were made on Monday, no postman has been able to complete their deliveries, creating a backlog of thousands of letters.

With three one-day walk-outs planned by the CWU this month the service is likely to fall even further behind as the union fights planned job losses at the Streatham office in Prentis Road which could result in the loss of 23 postmen.

Streatham is following Wimbledon, Putney and Wandsworth where similar restructuring prompted by the Royal Mail’s introduction of a new computer system has caused havoc over the last three weeks.

Greg Charles, branch secretary of the CWU in south west London, said those postmen not being made redundant still have to sort mail by street and house number and were being asked to do longer rounds.

He added: “You’re going to see exactly the same story in Streatham as you have already in Wandsworth and Wimbledon where the situation is catastrophic.

“I’ve even had reports of an agency worker being drafted in that’s started early in the morning and still not finished his round at 7.30 in the evening.”

But the Royal Mail’s operations director, Paul Tolhurst, said: “Royal Mail is getting on with modernisation in an entirely fair and reasonable way which is completely in line with our existing agreement with the union on flexible working practices.”

He added that the union’s decision to strike and delay postal services further was simply political posturing.

[DGP1]

But the Royal Mail’s operations director, Paul Tolhurst, said: “Royal Mail is getting on with modernisation in an entirely fair and reasonable way which is completely in line with our existing agreement with the union on flexible working practices.”

nothing fair or reasonable in the way anything has been 'planned' or implemented.