Postal workers call off strike

Workers face a backlog of 50m items of mail

Postal workers in Wales have started to return to work after three days of industrial action.

But the Royal Mail has said the backlog of 50m items of mail in north and south Wales could take days to clear.

Sorting office staff in Cardiff arrived for the morning shift on Friday and workers also turned up for work Bangor, Rhyl, Holyhead and Colwyn Bay in north Wales.

Royal Mail spokesman Stuart Taylor said workers across Wales had were going back to work.

Customers faced disruption during the strike

He said workers at Cardiff agreed to return after a meeting early on Friday morning.

The move follows the return of staff at Chester sorting office, which was among offices which started industrial action in support of a dispute at a sorting office in north London.

On Wednesday, more than 200 postal staff at the Royal Mail centre in Cardiff walked out in support of their striking colleagues, refusing to sort local mail intended for areas affected by industrial action.

Delivery office staff in Bangor, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Caernarfon, Llanwrst, Prestatyn and Holyhead also walked out after refusing to handle mail diverted from the Chester mail centre where 600 workers had walked out.

'Unlawful action'

More than 6,000 members of the Communication Workers' Union are involved in the unlawful strike action at mail centres and delivery offices.

Post Office Network and Parcel Force Worldwide were unaffected by the dispute.

The strike began last Friday when staff around the UK were asked to sort some mail destined for Watford where there was an official 24-hour stoppage.

The work was part of Royal Mail's contingency plans to minimise disruption caused by the Watford strike and was agreed with the union nationally.

Two mail centres - Liverpool and Stockport refused to continue working and walked out.

The action escalated when other mail centres refused to handle diverted mail.

The CWU has condemned the unofficial action and in a letter to its members has instructed them to agree to handle the diverted mail.