Posties say Portadown mail services are hit by 'cuts'

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Royal Mail services in Portadown have been seriously affected by a series of cuts, according to postal workers.

They claim that “overtime being decimated and the fact that several redundancies have not be filled all add up to an inferior service in the town”.

One claimed a number of areas were left without mail for a significant part of last week, adding that one particular estate in the town didn’t have its mail delivered on two separate days and that others are being left without a delivery on isolated days.


The postal worker said between seven and 10 delivery areas are not serviced on a regular basis, with a rota system operating.

It is understood around seven redundancies were made over the past number of weeks, but that only two were replaced. “Four of them were voluntary, two enforced and two others left for other jobs,” our source claimed. “Overtime has been significantly cut. Letter and parcel deliveries are affected.

“Customer complaints are rising steadily, and we believe the situation has got worse due to privatisation.”

Royal Mail spokesperson Morag Turnbull said, “It is completely untrue that the recent late deliveries in some areas of Portadown are due to privatisation. Royal Mail are facing letter volume decline and competition across the UK. This means that the business is continuing with its transformation programme to be as efficient as possible.

“A small number of staff in Portadown and Lurgan recently took voluntary redundancy and there have been some recent retirements. Unfortunately our recruitment process has taken a little longer than anticipated and Royal Mail would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.

“Plans have been put in place to resolve the matter as quickly as possible ... This includes recruiting temporary staff until the recruitment process has been completed. There is no truth that overtime has been decimated. Overtime is available to any members of staff who volunteer to work additional hours.”

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“A small number of staff in Portadown and Lurgan recently took voluntary redundancy and there have been some recent retirements. Unfortunately our recruitment process has taken a little longer than anticipated and Royal Mail would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.

On orders from the head of the sector there are no vacancies to be filled, this is all to do with budget and the more they save the bigger bonus they get, it is happening all over the sector, if all my time I've never seen failures in my office until recently.