Yorkshire Royal Mail worker 'appalled' as packages and letters left 'scattered all over' postal mail centre

The member of staff, who works in Leeds and has requested to remain anonymous, submitted a number of photos taken at the mail centre in Stourton of parcels and bags “scattered all over the dock” and “piled six foot high”.

The man, who has worked for Royal Mail for nearly a decade, said: “This evening I came to work to the most unorganised operation I’ve ever seen.

“I am disgraced and appalled by the lack of management or equipment during the busiest period of the year.”

He said that Royal Mail has cut back on the amount of overtime available to staff and also hired fewer temporary staff during the Christmas period than usual. He also said that extra equipment such as cages have not been provided.

Royal Mail has responded saying that strike action was exacerbating issues at centres and added that the images “are not unusual for peak season”.

The Royal Mail worker said: “This is the first Christmas where we have just seen mail dumped on the side.

"The problem is that normally Royal Mail opens up small distribution centres around Leeds to help but this hasn’t been done.”

He said that since strike action began Royal Mail cut back on overtime for staff. He said that usually at the centre during Christmas there would up to 100 overtime staff on shifts but now the number can be counted on one hand.

He said: “Because there’s no overtime staff the temp staff hardly know what they are doing.

"It’s like Royal Mail don’t want to put the effort in.”

He also said that in recent months there has been a huge number of staff applying for redundancy and trying to leave the company. He said: “It’s a bit depressing to be honest.

"We consider ourselves civil servants and we’re getting complaints from customers. We want to do a good job at Royal Mail but now they are putting pressure on staff. There has been countless applications for voluntary redundancy for people who are just over it.

"People are really angry at what’s going on at the minute.”

He added: “I think it’s a bit of an excuse from Royal Mail to say that these problems are brought about by the strikes.”

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We have well-developed contingency plans to ensure our customers are looked after, and minimise delays during CWU’s industrial action to keep people, businesses and the country connected.

"These images are not unusual for peak season when our mail centres and delivery offices process very high volumes of mail items. The images show mail in the process of being unloaded and moved through our systems for onward distribution.

“Christmas is our busiest time of year and we recognise the additional lengths that our postmen and women, and the thousands of temporary workers who support us during the peak season, go to deliver the higher volumes of parcels and cards we deliver. Our managers are trained to support their teams to deliver a consistent and efficient service for their customers, and ensuring that workloads between colleagues are fair and manageable.”