Royal Mail losing 400 postal workers a week, says union

Image source, Getty ImagesByColletta Smith, BBC Your Voice correspondent and Elaine Doran, BBC Your Voice producerPublished4 hours agoAbout 400 postmen and women are leaving Royal Mail per week, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU), who claims this number has gone up since the company introduced a new delivery system earlier this year.

The CWU says the firm had been losing about 330 postal staff a week from a workforce of 83,000 before it rolled out DM26, which reorganised routes to improve delivery performance.

The union claims the new system is not working in hundreds of offices, and BBC Your Voice has heard from staff warning of a "nightmare" Christmas ahead as the number of parcels increases.

Royal Mail says the reforms are part of its plan to deliver a more "efficient and financially sustainable" service.

Over the last year we've been in touch with more than 30 postal staff in all four nations of the UK, as they have switched over to DM26.

It allows for second class post to only be delivered every other weekday, and is supposed to guarantee first class mail and parcels are delivered every day, by putting workers into groups of three and changing the walking pattern of rounds.

But posties speaking to us anonymously say parcels are still being prioritised, letters left behind, and time wasted in sorting and dividing mail into first and second class.

"I didn't take any first class mail out on my last shift because I was on a road that's been behind for weeks," a worker in the West Midlands told me. "But I'm sure a manager would have ticked a box to say all first class mail went out."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said the company always worked to ensure all mail - both letters and parcels - were delivered on time.

Some postal workers we've spoken to say the new model is also increasing their workload.

We asked eight workers in different areas to track their average step counts. Since the switchover all their steps increased by a quarter or even a third, often up to around 25,000 steps a day.

"We all think this Christmas will be the worst ever, for us and our customers," said one postman in the East Midlands.