London’s postal delivery service is being undermined by poorly trained and inexperienced casual workers employed by Royal Mail to plug a staffing crisis, according to an investigation by the London Evening Standard.
Morale at delivery offices across London is at an all-time low, with managers and staff facing an unbearable workload even before the Christmas rush, the newspaper claims.
An undercover reporter working as a casual said he was sent out on deliveries without any training or proper instruction about unfamiliar routes. His references were never taken up.
The casuals are moved around from one day to the next and are not held accountable for their mistakes, the reporter said. In all but two of the offices where he worked, there was no one managing the casual staff or gauging the quality of their work to ensure that deliveries were properly carried out.
The findings come six months after Royal Mail sacked thousands of postmen and women and ended the twice-daily deliveries in the capital.
A Royal Mail spokesman said the Evening Standard’s findings were “anecdotal”.
He told the newspaper: “The introduction of a single daily delivery has been a massive change for our people, but at most delivery offices it has now settled down, with deliveries completed during the morning and with sickness absences reducing.”
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