se22

I know someone who works there. They barely employ enough staff to cover all year round. Staff keep going sick and a few people work very high levels of overtime all year to cover. Every Christmas the number of parcels quadruples. The callers office is open longer hours over Christmas which has to be staffed. Staff are understandably not allowed to take holiday in December which does provide a few extra people. There are currently several people on long term sick leave. There is a backlog of undelivered parcels. Extra staff have been brought in from other offices around London to help. They do not necessarily know East Dulwich or the particular job they are doing. I know all the staff are doing their very best in a stressful situation to provide a good service.

Royal Mail have changed the plates on the boxes in anticipation of a planned change in the way collections are performed. The plan is that most boxes will be emptied in the morning by the delivery postman instead of in the afternoon by a van driver. This is part of many planned changes which the union are currently in dispute with Royal Mail about. For example closing 500 out of 900 delivery offices nationwide and changing staff working times so that staff would start and finish 2 hours later. Customers would obviously therefore receive their mail 2 hours later.

Spare a thought for the postman who has to sort the leaflets in with your mail and then deliver it, knowing full well that much of it ends up in the bin without even being read.

It's due to a combination of long-term staff sickness, extra people on holiday during August, heavy workload etc. Royal Mail relies heavily on staff being prepared to work overtime in the afternoon to cover for missing staff. If there are insufficient takers then parts of the area don't get a delivery.

Chances are that a postie based in South Norwood was covering for staff shortage in East Dulwich and used the wrong cards.

Staff were informed today that the consultation has now closed and Royal Mail have decided to close the office and move to Peckham. It will take some months because work will need to be done on the building, duties will need to be reorganised and extra vans purchased to replace the trolleys. Very disappointing for both staff and customers.