Senior MP accuses Royal Mail of prioritising parcels over letters

In a session held yesterday (17 January), the senior Labour MP told Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson: “I’m a bit confused because a whistle-blower wrote to me only last week, once we’d advertised that this session was happening, to tell me that you do in fact prioritise parcels over letters. In fact, he sent me a poster that’s on his rack in one of your offices.”

He read the contents of the letter: “The future is parcels. Unless your manager directs you otherwise, these are your priorities on delivery each day: 1) Premium items and collections, 2) Large parcels, 3) Lapsing, including all parcels, and 4) At least half of the delivery points on your frame, including letters.”

Jones then continued: “So letters are ranked number four in the priority list, and only half of them, so you’re unilaterally only delivering on 50% of your USO [Universal Service Obligation] aren’t you Mr Thompson?”

Thompson replied that he was aware of the correspondence “that was done in one delivery office, and was dealt with, and was a local action”, and stressed “that is absolutely not our policy”.

Jones retorted: “It’s on a Royal Mail poster that your workers are being asked to read when they go to work. If that’s not Royal Mail policy, how else do you communicate Royal Mail policy?”

To Thompson’s interjection of “that is absolutely not our policy”, Jones said: “I’d remind you, Mr Thompson, that misleading parliament is not something that we appreciate here on the committee, and I think if this is not the case, you’re going to need to write to us with sufficient details afterwards to prove that that’s changed.”

The BBC reported that David Bharrat, a postal worker who is also a branch secretary for the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said the poster was displayed in a delivery office in the Harrow and District Area, and that the sign appeared last August.

He told the BBC that letters at his delivery office would regularly sit in sorting devices known as ‘frames’ for four days at a time, and that the poster would not have been put up on the wall without the permission of a senior manager.

The BBC quoted Bharrat as saying: “We feel depressed. We’re leaving mail behind and that’s not what we’re about, postmen regard all mail as important.”

Separately, as of this morning (18 January), Royal Mail was continuing to experience severe service disruption to its international export services following last week’s “cyber incident”.

It is still temporarily unable to despatch items to overseas destinations and has asked customers not to post international export items until further notice.

“Our import operations continue to perform a full service, with some minor delays. Parcelforce Worldwide export services are still operating to all international destinations though customers should expect minor delays. Royal Mail’s UK services are still operational,” it stated.

“Our teams are continuing to work around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update you as soon as we have more information. An investigation into the incident is ongoing and we are working with external experts. We have reported the incident to our regulators and the relevant security authorities.”

The incident is causing further disruption for those reliant on Royal Mail’s services, following months of strikes involving over 115,000 postal workers across the Royal Mail network.