Weeks to deliver’ huge mail backlog

Oct 22 2007 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL’S postal backlog will take weeks to clear.

Delayed post is already stockpiled around the city, and mail officials will refuse to sanction overtime to delivery staff to clear the backlog in the wake of two official 48-hour walkouts and more than a week of unofficial strike action by Communication Workers’ Union members in the city.

One postal worker estimated that the mail mountain could take three months to clear.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman admitted: “It is extremely difficult to predict how long it will take to clear.

“It is clearly going to take a few weeks.

“We are going to do everything that we can and use whatever resources we can to clear the backlog, but it is difficult to predict because it depends on other postings.”

She reinforced management’s determination not to award overtime to staff involved in unofficial strike action: “They don’t get overtime for clearing work they should have been doing.”

One option could be to employ casual staff to help clear the backlog:

neilhodgson@liverpoolecho.co.uk