Royal Mail redundancies as sorting offices close

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More than 130 postal workers in the district will lose their jobs thanks to Royal Mail restructuring plans confirmed this week.

A new ‘super-sorting-office’ in Strood has been officially given the go-ahead, meaning job losses in Canterbury, Dartford, Tonbridge and Maidstone.

Canterbury’s Royal Mail depot, which employs 250 people, will remain open but will be used for deliveries rather than sorting. And delivery offices in Whitstable and Herne Bay will be shut down completely meaning 60 and 70 jobs will be lost respectively.

David Banbury, Kent branch secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: "We are mounting a public campaign in Whitstable and we are likely to be doing the same thing in Herne Bay to keep those offices open.

"We will hopefully get the public behind the campaign to keep those offices open. Industrial action is a long way down the line but that is a possibility if that is how our membership feel.

"We had a stall out on Saturday and got 200 signatures on a petition in an hour from people who are pretty upset by the idea of Royal Mail moving out of Whitstable and into Canterbury.

"There will be jobs disappearing out of Whitstable and Herne Bay in the coming years. It is taking jobs out of both those towns, and for Whitstable Royal Mail is one of the largest employers. Royal Mail need our agreement to move ahead with this."

In all 400 jobs will go across Kent, but Royal Mail has said it wants to avoid compulsory redundancies. The changes are set to happen in 2012.

The company’s south east regional operations director, Tom Willis, said: "This decision represents a £70 million investment to modernise Royal Mail operations in Kent through new technology and working conditions for our people.

"We intend to continue to provide convenient facilities for customers wishing to collect mail.

"The decision will also mean changes for our people. We have consulted our unions and our people before reaching this decision and we have a great track record for managing such change without recourse to compulsory redundancies."

Royal Mail said people in the UK are posting 16 million fewer letters a day than five years ago. The company also said it earned £173 million less than it did in the same six months a year ago.

The post company has said the new structure will mean their vehicle mileage in Kent will go down by 600,000 a year and they will have more energy-efficient buildings.