'Very high sick levels' leading to further Post Office delivery delays in Watford and Kings Langley

Post by **POSTMAN** » 19 Sep 2017, 13:42

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/1 ... s_Langley/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

People in Watford and Kings Langley have not been getting their post on time because of a chronic shortage of staff at the Royal Mail’s local sorting office.

One worker at the Caxton Way branch, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed some routes had not been completed for days because of high levels of sick absence and low morale among remaining workers.

“Sick levels at the moment in the Royal Mail are at an epidemic level. Postmen are dropping like flies,” they said.

“Walks can’t be covered so they’re getting emergency staff in but they’re coming in, seeing the workload and just turning round. This has been going on for months but it’s getting worse. Some walks have not been out for four days.”

It was also claimed that although several part-time staff were due to start this week to cover for the absentees, no team leaders had been appointed to train them and that postmen were expected to do this on the job for no extra pay.

“New recruits are being assigned to postmen to train them for free. They’re not prepared to do that,” added the unnamed source.

“It’s gotten much worse since they privatised it and it’s going to keep getting worse. The feeling is there’s going to be an overwhelming yes in favour of strike action.”

Similar problems were reported at the same sorting office in August.

Royal Mail spokesperson Sally Hopkins apologised for the recent delivery delays, explaining this was down to “very high sick absence levels in the office”.

“We have contingency measures in place, including drafting in extra resources from other offices, and many of those currently off sick are due back very soon,” she added.

“We are also recruiting some new staff to join the team within the next three or four weeks. Royal Mail has a robust training programme in place to support new starters in all our offices.

“We would like to apologise to customers in parts of Watford and the surrounding area who may not recently have received the first class service we aim to provide to all our customers.”

Post by **POSTMAN** » 19 Sep 2017, 13:43

Previously on RMC...
Hundreds of houses in Watford not receiving post due to staff shortages

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » 19 Sep 2017, 17:52

Utter, utter bollocks - it's RM management refusing to fully staff up deliberately. Sack the board now!

goddard7 · Post by **goddard7** » 19 Sep 2017, 19:31

Lapsing walks regularly at this office,their attitude is that meeting budget is all that matters.
Morale is rock bottom and an affirmative YES vote is in the bag.

bloot · Post by **bloot** » 19 Sep 2017, 20:42

" Royal Mail has a robust training programme in place to support new starters in all our offices."

Post by **Lounge Lizard** » 19 Sep 2017, 20:48

bloot wrote:" Royal Mail has a robust training programme in place to support new starters in all our offices."

A "robust" one day induction

toofpick · Post by **toofpick** » 19 Sep 2017, 20:52

goddard7 wrote:Lapsing walks regularly at this office,their attitude is that meeting budget is all that matters.
Morale is rock bottom and an affirmative YES vote is in the bag.

I work in this office... You are not wrong there

chickenwittle · Post by **chickenwittle** » 19 Sep 2017, 21:00

Lapsing duties is a big part of the problem as on heavy days when there is no time to lapse they have no staff to do these duties but they are so short sighted about saving hours etc. that they can't see it .