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Royal Mail bosses have said they hope that normal service can soon be resumed soon out of a South Bristol delivery office, which has become so delayed residents are discussing organising a protest at their missing mail.
People living in the BS3 and BS13 postcode areas of Bristol that have their mail processed through the Kent Street delivery office in Bedminster have been flooding Royal Mail, Bristol Live and the area’s community social media and noticeboards with complaints about delays to mail in the past month or more, caused by staff shortages.
Bristol Live was the first to report on the problems in South Bristol back in late September, with residents complaining they were waiting weeks for their mail. Since then, a much-shared post on community social media in the area claimed that the problems came from the departure of 40 per cent of staff from the Kent Street delivery office over the summer – a figure that has not been confirmed by the Royal Mail. But the postworkers’ union did confirm that the deal imposed on workers after last year’s strike did spark something of a mass exodus from Kent Street, and other delivery offices around Bristol and the wider region.
September: Royal Mail delays in Bristol due to issues in local delivery office
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People living in Bedminster, Knowle West, Bishopsworth, Bedminster Down, Ashton, Southville, Hartcliffe and Withywood have inundated Royal Mail – and Bristol Live too – with complaints about the lack of postal deliveries, with some people reporting that they have not had mail for a fortnight or more, in September and October.
In late September, Royal Mail acknowledged there was a problem, and told Bristol Live it apologised to customers. Now, Royal Mail said it is putting measures in place that should sort out the issue.
“We are committed to restoring our quality of service to our customers,” a Royal Mail spokesperson said. “We have plans in place and dedicated teams responsible for improving deliveries in South Bristol and throughout our delivery offices nationwide. There have been delays at the local delivery office and in response, we’ve brought additional resources into the operation. This is putting the service on a positive footing and we expect normal service to return soon,” he added.
Union leaders said the issues were straightforward, and caused by a large number of experienced and long-standing postal staff leaving following the changes to the terms and conditions of employment that came out of the strike-ending deal at the start of this year.
Kevin Beazer, the south west regional secretary for the Communication Workers’ Union, said they had warned Royal Mail what would happen. “We know what the reasons are, and it’s not isolated to South Bristol, it’s across the south west,” he told BBC Radio Bristol. “It’s unfortunate, we sympathise with the customers in respect of their post and what this is, it’s due to staffing shortages.
“We went through a very onerous dispute with the Royal Mail Group. As a consequence of that, we had an agreement. Some elements of that agreement are difficult and we’ve had postal workers that have had years of experience who have walked away from the industry. Royal Mail have introduced a grade which is not by agreement, which has less terms and conditions, and that’s a revolving door. So this is all down to not enough staff doing the work, and that’s the bottom line, quite frankly.
“It’s specifically in delivery offices. We’ve had many members with huge experience that have left over the last few months. Also coupled with that, we’ve had revisions of duty structures that Royal Mail have introduced to save money, and that’s part of it as well. That’s an ongoing negotiation and debate between the union and Royal Mail and they have cut back financially in respect of the revision of duties, that’s down to staff as well, but the primary reason is that they have not got enough staff, they can’t recruit enough staff, and obviously there is concern as we lead up into the Christmas period,” he added.
The 2022 postal workers dispute between CWU members and Royal Mail ended in the New Year, and the last strike day was Christmas Eve. Mr Beazer said Royal Mail’s efforts to recruit enough staff would struggle. “This is down to the business making sure they’ve got enough staff in situ and making sure the delivery offices have got enough staff,” he said. “The reason customers are unfortunately not receiving their mail is because they’ve not done that.
“They are rectifying a problem they caused in the first place. They’ve got themselves into a pickle on this. We’ve had very experienced postmen and women with great relationships with their customers, who have left the business, and although they talk about bringing new staff in, which they’ve tried to do, unfortunately those staff are not staying.
“Royal Mail knows what the situation is. I’m afraid it’s going to be a case of ‘watch this space’. At the end of the day it’s about retention. Members in South Bristol don’t want to go to a workplace where they are understaffed, stressed out, because there’s less people doing the same amount of work and that adds stress. And people go off with stress. What they want is the right amount of people, doing the right amount of work,” he added.
