We're not anti-modernisation say post workers

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We're not anti-modernisation say post workers
6:30am Tuesday 8th September 2009

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By Thom Airs »


POSTMEN in Oxford last night hit out at Royal Mail for setting what they claimed were “impossible” targets as a strike at the area’s key Wiltshire depot rumbled on.

Staff at the Swindon mail depot, where mail for Oxford is now sorted, walked out for 24 hours on Wednesday and delivery drivers are currently in the middle of a 48-hour strike which began yesterday over pay.

'It used to be an enjoyable job, but this isn’t modernisation, it’s like going back to Victorian times'

But post workers in Oxford have contacted the Oxford Mail to reiterate they are not the ones on strike, although they did want to provide an insight into their working conditions.

One 38-year-old postman from Oxford, who asked not to be named, said: “We are being told things have to modernise, but if you send something to someone then it will have to be physically posted through their door at one end — you can’t modernise that!

“We’re supposed to finish at 2pm or 2.30pm, but by the time you finish it could be 3.30pm.

“The solution is for the people making these decisions to do a round with us and see what’s happening.”

He added: “No-one wants to go to work and not do a good job, but it’s happening all the time and people are disgruntled. If that happens every single day it’s not good for morale.”

Post workers had battled to prevent the closure of the Oxford Mail Centre, in Garsington Road, before it closed earlier in the summer.

A 44-year-old Oxford postman of 20 years’ standing said: “It’s not getting more difficult, it’s getting impossible.

“In January, we had the revision of our jobs with the new Pegasus computer software which made up these rounds that are horrendous. Not every job is impossible, but it’s Russian roulette whether you get one or not.

“I’m not being militant or awkward, but it’s physically impossible to do the rounds in the time you’re given. If you go over time you’re not paid for it and if you don’t complete you get harassed by managers.

“I think it’s all been done on purpose to run down the services. The vehicles are in a bad state, even the elastic bands were bought on the cheap and keep snapping.

“It’s heading for privatisation. The public will get so fed up, it will make it easy to privatise.”

He added: “Morale is as bad as I’ve seen it. We are supposed to start at 6am but you get a lot of people in at 5am to work for nothing because they cannot complete their round otherwise.

“If you have a meal break you are seen as a troublemaker, so you basically end up working 5.30am until 2.30pm without stopping.

“It used to be an enjoyable job, but this isn’t modernisation, it’s like going back to Victorian times.”

Paul Garraway, secretary of the Oxfordshire branch of the Communication Workers’ Union, said of the postmen’s allegations: “That sounds exactly right, which is why we balloted individual offices over strike action. There’s a lot of goodwill out there and Royal Mail is just abusing it.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We introduced changes at Oxford Delivery Offices at the start of the year. They are fully in line with the existing agreement on modernisation and everything we ask our people to do is reasonable. All the changes — which have been already been implemented in Oxford and at many offices around the country — are in line with both the letter and the spirit of the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement on flexible working practices.

“We cannot understand why the union is claiming to support modernisation when it's pursuing a policy of actively opposing the changes we need to make to ensure there's a successful future for the business.”