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ROYAL Mail has been accused of ignoring a growing crisis in Shetland, with postal staff leaving “in droves” due to low pay and extremely pressured working conditions.
A quarter of postie jobs in Shetland are vacant, with four workers quitting in April alone.
That has meant some remaining staff are having to work up to 70 hours a week – the legal limit – to cover the shortfall.
The Lerwick sorting office has also been described as “antiquated” and “out of date”, with Royal Mail choosing to spend £80,000 a year patching it up instead of buying a new building.
And a decision to move postal flights to Glasgow instead of Aberdeen has been blamed for some mail taking much longer to land on Shetlanders’ doorsteps.
Royal Mail representatives declined to attend a crisis roundtable organised by local politicians Alistair Carmichael and Beatrice Wishart today (Friday), which was attended by union representatives, media and figures from local groups.
Former MP Neil Findlay, representing social justice enterprise Unity Consulting, said it was “frankly outrageous” that Royal Mail had decided not to take part in the crisis talks.
Local Communication Workers Union (CWU) representative George Ross said management and staff in Shetland were urgently calling for change.
He claimed the Commercial Street sorting office was “not safe” and “not fit for purpose”, and said management were “screaming for a new building”.
The old post office on Commercial Street. Photo: Shetland News
Ross however said Royal Mail had been in Shetland last month looking at a new site which could potentially be used as a sorting office.
While he said this would “ultimately come down to cost”, Royal Mail had looked at an “empty warehouse” which was “somewhere close” to the current building.
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One major drawback with the site identified would be a lack of parking, he added.
With vacancies sitting between 25 and 35 per cent, he said the Shetland team were becoming ever reliant on university students when they returned home.
Ross said they were also using schoolchildren on Saturdays to help prepare the mail at the sorting office.
“Wages are a massive issue,” he said.
“Many have left Royal Mail to go to the fish farms because it’s a better paying job.”
Asked by Shetland News why four people had left in one month alone, Ross said the decision was “purely financial”.
“I saw an advert for a job at a fish farm that was paying £15 an hour.
“They got a gym membership and transport to and from their home.
“It’s competition that Royal Mail probably can’t match.”
He said plans for a massive new fish farm at Fish Holm in Yell Sound was “the next concern,” adding: “That’s where people will go.”
MP Carmichael has proposed a campaign targeted at Royal Mail with three main aims for Shetland:
- An improved package of pay and conditions for staff
- Investment in the Royal Mail’s infrastructure, such as the sorting office
- A review of the business of putting mail to and from Glasgow
Postal staff in the isles are said to be under increasing pressures, with Ross adding that Shetland was “probably one of the busiest places in the UK for parcels” per head of population.
Some workers are doing double shifts and working up to 70 hours a week to ensure the mail gets to people as quickly as possible.
Isles MP Alistair Carmichael
Carmichael said that was “just not sustainable in the long term”.
Michael Sharpe, also of Unity Consulting, said they “know the impact that is having on the staff”.
“It shouldn’t go unnoticed the impact this is having on them,” he added.
MSP Wishart paid tribute to local postal workers, saying they were doing great work “in really difficult circumstances” and had been for some time.
She criticised the decision to move postal flights to Glasgow, saying that had added unnecessary time onto deliveries.
“I was contacted by a constituent who was waiting for results of tests from NHS Grampian,” she said.
“She’d not had any mail for two or three days.
“That had meant an anxious wait.”
The roundtable meeting on Friday heard that talks are ongoing between Royal Mail and the CWU about improving pay and terms and conditions for postal workers.
Carmichael was told these were at an “extremely delicate” stage.
Royal Mail has been approached for a response.
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