A disgruntled postie has lifted the lid on the “chaos” at a city’s sorting office.
The postal worker hit out at Royal Mail bosses who she said should be blamed for delayed deliveries rather than hard-pressed staff working from Brighton’s North Road office.
She claimed she was abused in the street by an enraged customer who had been waiting for a parcel for weeks.
The postal worker, who said her job would be in danger if she was named, said: “I was walking home from work after a long day and a guy just came up to me and swore in my face.
“He said he was still waiting for a package and shouted at me to get back in the depot and find it for him.
“Many customers seem to think it’s the posties’ fault for the late deliveries – well it’s not. We are simply taking the blame for managers’ mistakes.”
In February, Royal Mail bosses announced cost-cutting moves in Brighton and Hove to push back some deliveries to as late as 3pm.
Routes across the city were revised and mailbags were replaced with trolleys to “take the weight off our posties’ shoulders”, according to a spokeswoman.
Yet the worker claimed the changes had been pushed forward without bosses checking with frontline staff.
“They didn’t consult with us properly and now the whole thing’s a mess,” she said.
“They’ve got rid of staff and they’ve made deliveries longer. We’ve been given a ridiculous amount of work to do. It’s like they expect blood from a stone.”
Last week The Argus revealed there were 15 skips full of unsorted parcels in the depot while frust-rated customers waited for them to arrive.
After The Argus launched the ‘Sort It Out’ campaign on Friday, Simon Kirby, MP for Kemptown, told Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene that delivery times in the city were “unacceptable.”
The whistle-blower said: “It’s complete chaos in there because everything is just taking so much longer.
“They’re just wearing people into the ground.”
High-level talks involving the Communication Workers Union to try to resolve the dispute between staff and management took place last week.
In the meantime, frantic Royal Mail bosses have called in scores of temporary workers from as far as Crawley and East Grinstead to try to get deliveries moving, it is claimed.
She said: “They seem to think it would work better with casual staff but it’s not working for us and it’s certainly not working for the public.
“You wouldn’t find a postie that loves his job now. It’s an awful job and it makes me really sad. We used to be able to talk to our customers but we can’t now.”
A spokeswoman from the Royal Mail said: “The changes we are making follow sharp declines in mail volumes in Brighton, as in other areas nationwide.
“We need to ensure we operate efficiently in a market which is open to intense competition but our constant aim remains to provide the best possible service to customers.
“We are working closely with our people and the union in the office as we complete the operational changes.”
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