Posties deliver a warning of chaos

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.londoninformer.co.uk/london- ... -24704813/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

STRIKING postal workers claimed this week that Fulham residents face delivery chaos if Royal Mail pushes ahead with changes to local rounds.

The firm plans to slash the number of delivery routes covering the area from 62 to 36, doubling the workload of many posties, who will be expected to deliver to hundreds more addresses in the same amount of time each day.

Employees at the Fulham Road sorting office claim mail is in danger of going undelivered as reduced numbers of staff struggle to clear daily backlogs before heading out on the streets.

They say a computer programme used by managers to divide up the new rounds is based on an unrealistic walking speed of four miles per hour, with key routes like Fulham Road - currently served by just two regular rounds - split into short sections covered by up to 18 different workers.

The changes mean some 25 different 'walks' would be required to cover the four longest routes of Fulham Road, Wandsworth Bridge Road, New King's Road and Munster Road.

Postman Dominic Beck, 35, who has worked in Fulham for 16 years and would have to cover twice the number of side streets off Fulham Palace Road, said: "The impact that this is going to have on the service to customers in Fulham is frightening. People aren't going to get a delivery. If they bring these changes in it's going to be an ongoing problem.

"We used to have one postman going down each road. Now you will see 10 or 12 postmen all going down the same road and passing each other. It'll be like the Keystone Cops."

Dozens of managers were brought in to Fulham this week to help deliver a backlog of mail after a strike by local members of the Communication Workers' Union caused operations at the sorting office to grind to a halt.

It follows postal chaos in Wimbledon earlier this week, when industrial action meant managers were forced to sort mail on the pavement as it spilled out of delivery vans.

Royal Mail insists the changes are necessary and have already been agreed by union members.

Operations director Paul Tolhurst said: "Royal Mail is getting on with the essential changes the union has signed up to in a fair and reasonable way, while the union continues to try to back pedal from its commitment to modernisation and impose a veto on the progress.

"The union keeps saying that it recognises change is inevitable, so why can't it bring itself to get on with creating a successful future for the company and its people instead of hurting customers, damaging the job prospects of its members and ignoring the reality of increasing competition, especially from email and the web?"

[POSTMAN]

1st of all Tolhurst change the record and stop lying,2nd good luck Fulham

[DirtyHarry]

When idiots like Paul Tolhurst keep saying "We are introducing change in a reasonable and calm fashion." Why doesn't some journo say, "Oh yeah, then what's with the chaos? Surely, posties aren't losing a day's money every week just for the hell of it, are they?"