Shocking footage uncovered from inside Royal Mail sorting offices has uncovered how postal employees are prioritising profitable parcels over essential letters.
An undercover investigation by The Sunday Times discovered posties had been compelled to depart behind envelopes with first-class stamps, authorities and NHS correspondence, payments and fines in favour of parcels.
Royal Mail should ship letters to each postcode from Monday to Saturday beneath the Postal Services Act 2011. It was a situation of their privatisation, which started in 2013.
One journalist was provided a conditional job over the telephone lower than 5 hours after sending an software, while the different was given the identical after lower than 5 minutes. They went undercover in Wandsworth, south London, and Southampton.
At a sorting workplace in Wandsworth, when one Royal Mail employee was requested why parcels had been being taken forward of letters, they replied: ‘You’d should ask Royal Mail that. They prioritise parcels. They’re not supposed to, however they do prioritise parcels.’
The investigation discovered that some letters had been stacked up for 2 to 3 days, with many visibly necessary.
In Southampton, when the undercover reporter requested why so many letters had been nonetheless stacked up, his supervisor replied: ‘We’ve received numerous sick and numerous vacancies. So I’ve been right here 4 weeks. So I’m studying myself.
‘What I’ve seen right here is that a great deal of vacancies. Sick is excessive. That’s why we have accomplished an enormous recruitment. So I’ve recruited you guys. About seven of you now, I’ve received.
‘I’m attempting to transform the company and it is Christmas so parcels have gone by means of the roof.’
The reporter in London additionally went out with an skilled postal employee on a supply route.
During the shift, he advised her: ‘If you already know you may not full a spherical, what you’ll want to do is carry it again or… they may resolve what to take out. Leave the letters, take the parcels immediately. They will let you already know that.’
Back in Southampton, one other Royal Mail employee admitted that ‘you are not alleged to’ prioritise parcels, including: ‘Legally it is towards the legislation.’
He stated it ‘positively’ occurs ‘extra usually that what it ought to do’. ‘But yeah, no it’s towards the legislation and so they should not be doing it,’ he added.
The reporters – who had been employed after minimal checks earlier than beginning coaching after a four-hour induction course, additionally discovered that some postal employees had been even being despatched out with out letters in any respect, leaving the way forward for the Royal Mail unsure.
The Mail’s personal investigation this week discovered that depot managers are accused of telling staff to focus on shifting ‘premium merchandise’ resembling Amazon deliveries ‘at the expense of letters’.
Posties say it means parcels containing trivial objects resembling buckets and vapes are being delivered extra shortly than hospital appointments and most cancers screening outcomes.
Tens of hundreds of thousands of Christmas playing cards are as a result of be despatched this month, however insiders warned they are going to be ‘sacrificed in favour of parcels’ and sit undelivered in sorting offices.
‘Come January, folks can be getting Christmas playing cards,’ a postman based mostly in the North of England stated. ‘They’ll have been sitting in the [sorting] frames going nowhere.’
Following the investigation, postal employees accused the Royal Mail of deceptive the public after the firm denied claims it’s prioritising parcels over letters.
A senior Royal Mail govt this week rejected solutions that parcels are being given choice after the Daily Mail printed the extraordinary claims from posties that households are lacking out on necessary letters in favour of trivial packages.
Hard-working postmen have now hit again at the Royal Mail’s denials – and this newspaper has heard a recording of a depot supervisor allegedly telling a postie to ‘positively’ prioritise parcels over letters.
‘It’s simply straight-up lies,’ stated the south-east postman, who needs to stay nameless out of concern of shedding his job.
‘I’m sick of it. I simply need to get these letters out to all of those folks which are struggling over Christmas, however we have been advised to not.’
On Monday Nick Landon, chief industrial officer for Royal Mail, denied that parcels are being given precedence, telling the BBC: ‘Absolutely I can say, I sit on the board, we aren’t prioritising parcels over letters.
‘Clearly when it comes to funding, letters are lowering worldwide yearly. Parcels are rising actually quickly, so an enormous focus on ensuring we will deal with that progress in parcels we’ve got throughout the community,’ he stated.
Mr Landon made the feedback while standing in a big Royal Mail hub devoted to parcels.
One postman identified: ‘He would not go to a mail centre [for an interview] as a result of it could be stuffed to the rafters, it could be messy and soiled.’ Under the Universal Service Obligation, the Royal Mail is legally required to ship letters to each tackle in the UK, six days per week, and parcels 5 days per week.
But postal employees say they’ve been struggling to fulfil the authorized obligation for months as depot managers are extra involved with delivering tracked parcels shortly, which means letters are sacrificed.
A spokesman for the Royal Mail stated: “We will all the time do our utmost to make sure each letters and parcels are delivered on time. The run as much as Christmas is our busiest time of 12 months, with greater than double the regular variety of letters and parcels passing by means of our community.
‘Average parcel sizes have grown by round 30% lately, and in any typical week parcels take up round 90% of sorting house in our supply offices.
“We have all the time been clear that at busy instances resembling Christmas it could be logistically essential to clear parcels first to keep away from community points, hold the mail shifting and guarantee the security of our colleagues, particularly in small supply offices.
‘These measures have been shared with Ofcom who haven’t recognized any suggestion that Royal Mail senior administration have directed the prioritisation of parcels over letters outdoors of recognised contingency plans.
“We have taken steps to enhance high quality of service and ship Christmas, together with recruiting 16,000 seasonal employees, opening 5 short-term sorting centres and launching a high quality of service incentive scheme for all operational staff.
‘The overwhelming majority of mail is delivered on time and our newest printed high quality of service figures present that three quarters of first class letters arrive the following day, and 96% are delivered inside three days of posting.”