Postal workers face huge backlog

Postal services have been badly affected

Postal workers returning to work after two weeks of industrial action were faced with a backlog of up to 50 million letters.

The unofficial action, which spread across the whole country, has disrupted mail services for millions of people.

The industrial relations record is abysmal and we cannot go on putting a sticking plaster over the problems

Derek Hodgson
CWU general secretary

Workers began returning to work after Royal Mail managers and members of the Communication Workers' Union reached a deal in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Post boxes in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and elsewhere were sealed as the dispute over working hours raged on, and it is estimated the backlog could take as long as two weeks to clear.

But the union's branch secretary David Baulch said he did not think the backlog of letters would affect general election post.

He said: "I don't think there will be a problem and I should think they will work something out nationally to deal with that."

Agreement

About 15,000 workers joined the unofficial wildcat walkouts - paralysing 10 mail centres and 72 delivery offices across the country.

Postal workers in Watford, where the action began, agreed to return to work after the Royal Mail, which handles about 80 million items of post each day, agreed to hold more talks on the introduction of new shift patterns.

Workers in Manchester, Liverpool and Preston will not vote until Friday but the CWU expects all workers to be back at work by the end of the week.

Derek Hodgson, general secretary of the CWU, said a previously announced review of industrial relations in the organisation would now have to take the latest unrest into account.

He said: "The industrial relations record is abysmal and we cannot go on putting a sticking plaster over the problems - we need a proper cure.

"The situation has to be sorted out because with competition opening up, customers will march with their feet and we will lose jobs."