Postal chaos looms in mail depot strike

The unofficial dispute was sparked off after 26 'temporary full time' employees were told they were being put on part-time hours.

The announcement, made by letter at the weekend, came as a shock to many of the workers at the West Bowling site, some of who had been working on a full-time basis for years.

Workers spokesman Robert Tordoff, 27, blamed a lack of communication from both the Royal Mail management and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) for the action.

He said: "I've been on temporary full-time pay for three years and assumed, like many of us, that I was a full-time member of staff now.

"We had no inkling this was on the way, and many of the lads have financial commitments, like mortgages, based on working full-time hours for full-time pay.

"So there's a lot of ill feeling about what's happening."

The CWU called an emergency meeting with its members today to try to head off full-scale industrial action.

With the Ripley Street depot handling 700,000 letters and parcels every week, the potential disruption from a prolonged strike is massive. A Royal Mail spokesman said: "Around 200 staff have taken unofficial and therefore illegal action today over local working arrangements.

"There's a meeting going on between staff and the union at the moment, and we hope they will return to work as soon as possible so we can start delivering mail to customers again.

"We do apologise to all our customers for the disruption this illegal action is causing."

Relations between the CWU and its members in Ripley Street have been strained during staff restructuring negotiations with the Royal Mail, with a vote of no confidence passed on two representatives earlier this year.

At today's meeting, the union urged the workforce to return to work. Employees were assured that even though they had to switch to part-time hours they would remain on full-time pay until the restructuring plans were finalised, which could take nine months.