by René Lavanchy
Royal Mail is delaying the introduction of mail sorting machinery over concerns that it will result in mail being delivered later, the Communication Workers Union suggested this week. CWU officials say most of the machines bought, part of a planned order of 1,000 to be used to replace manual sorting by postmen, are lying idle at an undisclosed location in the Midlands.
The equipment has been bought with a £1.2 billion modernisation loan secured from the Government in 2007. Royal Mail has already come under fire for failing to spend all the money yet.
A CWU spokesperson said this week: “We think they’ve bought a large number of machines and they’re sitting in a dusty hangar.”
The union last week announced it would hold a national strike ballot over Royal Mail’s modernisation plans, which it says it is not being properly consulted on. Royal Mail accuses the CWU of trying to block change, but the union said this week it would accept job losses and cost savings if they were properly managed.
Royal Mail is thought to have planned to buy 1000 electronic walk sequencing machines from French company Solystic in order to automate the manual sorting of letters into “walk order” ready for delivery to letterboxes.
CWU London divisional representative Mark Palfrey said: “Do the machines do the job? Yes they do. Do they do it as quick as the current machinery? No they do not.”
“Distance mail [from distant parts of the country] does not arrive in inward mail centres till four o’clock in the morning… That mail would not now land in delivery offices till ten o’clock.”
“Royal Mail is having a debate. That’s clearly what’s going on, hence the attack on the front line postmen to reduce the cost, where they thought machinery was going to do that.” Union activists were not “Luddites”, he insisted.
Politicians are also puzzled about plans for the equipment. During a House of Lords debate on Royal Mail, Labour’s Lord Clarke said: “I have made exhaustive inquiries but no one can tell me where these machines are.”
Royal Mail had not responded as Tribune went to press.
Relations between Royal Mail and the CWU have currently broken down with company bosses accusing the union of refusing to negotiate despite being offered meetings. A CWU spokesperson said: “It’s just a lecture. There’s no negotiation going on at all in these meetings. It’s not talks, it’s being talked at.”
