Post mounts on third strike day

About 400 staff first walked out in Oxford over the weekend

Mail services in Oxfordshire are being delayed as staff stage a second unofficial strike in less than a week.

More than a million letters and parcels have piled up in depots since hundreds of Royal Mail staff went on strike in Oxford on Monday afternoon.

Union officials say members at the Oxford Mail Centre in Cowley are protesting at the unfair suspension of three colleagues.

On Tuesday morning hundreds of staff at the East Oxford, Oxpens and Kidlington delivery offices joined the walk-out.

Pay docked

Royal Mail is denying anyone has been suspended, saying some members of staff have had pay docked for refusing to carry out an instruction from a manager.

Bob Cullen, of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said: "We would just ask the public to bear with us.

"We don't take this action lightly, but we cannot stand by and let one of our members, two of our members and then three of our members be suspended."

The second strike follows action by 400 workers over the weekend who refused to clock-in at the Cowley and Headington postal offices.

The stoppage was over worries about a national pay deal and job cuts, but workers were persuaded to return to work by union leaders at an emergency meeting on Sunday.

Emergency talks are now continuing between Royal Mail bosses and union officials to try and resolve the latest dispute.

The new walk-out means the backlog for deliveries to homes and businesses may take days to clear.