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Royal Mail workers at the West Country’s biggest regional sorting office could be about to go on strike after bosses announced scores of redundancies in an efficiency drive.
The exact number of people about to lose their jobs at the huge Bristol Mail Centre is being disputed, with Royal Mail saying 40 people will ‘receive voluntary redundancy’, while union leaders say the real figure is 100.
The union which represents the 1,000 workers at the huge facility in Filton said they ‘fail to see how the quality of service will be maintained’ with the job cuts.
Staff who are members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) have agreed to begin the process of calling a strike ballot, which should take place in the next couple of weeks.
The job losses being ordered by Royal Mail are set to happen between now and the end of March.
Shane O’Riordain, the Royal Mail’s managing director of regulation, corporate affairs and marketing, said: “Royal Mail is making changes to the way we operate at Bristol Mail Centre to ensure we can more efficiently and effectively process and deliver the changing mail bag.
“Last year, Royal Mail engaged in a preference exercise whereby a number of colleagues at Bristol Mail Centre expressed an interest in voluntary redundancy. Forty colleagues will receive voluntary redundancy,” he added.
(Image: PA)
The Bristol Mail Centre in Filton is the largest Mail Centre in the South West and handles mail for the BS, BA, TA and GL postcodes. This covers an area that stretches from Gloucestershire through Wiltshire and Somerset and includes all postal districts in Bristol.
Mr O’Riordain said the changing way people expected orders to be processed and delivered had meant changes had to be made to the way the Mail Centre operates.
“The initiative includes a review of some individual tasks and shift patterns in order for the business to adapt to changing consumer habits,” he said.
“Consumers are ordering parcels later in the evening with growing demand for next day delivery,” he added.
But workers at the Mail Centre said they were furious at the job cuts, and maintained the figure was going to be nearer 100 redundancies in the end.
The CWU said it had been done without agreement of the union who represent workers there, and so the workers have now requested a ballot for industrial action at the depot.
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The CWU blasted the job cuts as ‘shocking and irresponsible’.
“Management are forcing through an unagreed revision at the workplace based on figures that are pie in the sky,” said CWU branch secretary Rob Wotherspoon.
“These job losses will mean huge disruption and pressure for those who are left behind.
“Bristol Mail Centre employs many people from across communities in Bristol and the surrounding area on decent terms and conditions. This will mean the replacement of these decent jobs with insecure, casual labour.
“We fail to see how the Mail Centre will maintain quality of service following these staff cuts. If workers in the plant are forced to take strike action this will have a further impact on quality. This is a shocking and irresponsible decision by rogue managers.
“Managers have refused to rule out compulsory redundancies and we have been called by many worried members who fear for their livelihoods.”
One worker at the Mail Centre, who declined to be named, said workers were baffled by the job cuts, because they were busy than ever and short-staffed as it was.
“We see agency workers being used to fill vacancies on a daily basis. Managers can’t manage and are spending their time doing our work to fill the gaps left by staff shortages.
The two-bob parcel machines they’ve brought in are breaking down all the time. One of them has never worked properly since a dead pigeon fell in it. So we end up sorting the parcels by hand. And yet we are told there is a massive surplus of staff – it just doesn’t add up,” he added.
