24 Oct 2009 - Royal Mail Strikes
We will endeavour to get your orders and exchanges to you ASAP and can only wholeheartedly apologise if your area is effected by the strikes, however this situation is completely out of our hands and hopefully Royal Mail will sort out their problems and b
Service Information for customers from Royal Mail.
Service Summary for all customers - Saturday 24th October
Communication Workers Union national industrial action
Staff at all delivery offices have returned to work today, Saturday 24th following yesterday’s stoppages. All deliveries should be made today; we are doing everything possible to deliver all delayed mail to customers during the next few days. We are pleased to say that the Special Delivery ™ guarantee has been re-instated for all items posted from today, Saturday 24th.
Important information about Royal Mail services next week
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has chosen to call further national strike action next week. The details are as follows:
| Date | Functions striking | General service impact |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 29th October | Mail Centres & Network Distribution Units. | Limited processing, movement and collection of ordinary mail (if local collections performed by staff at a Mail Centre). |
| Friday 30th October | Manual Data Entry Centres (MDEC) | No direct impact on mail services |
| Friday 30th October | London Collections Hubs | Limited collections in all parts of the SE, N, NW and WC postal districts. Limited collections in the E1, E2, E4, E5, E8 to E11, E17, E18, SW11 to SW20 postcode areas and all parts of the W district (except W5, W7, W13). Collections in EC district as normal. |
| Saturday 31st October | Delivery Offices | Limited delivery and collection of ordinary mail (if local collections performed by a Delivery Office) |
We are really sorry for the significant disruption and inconvenience national industrial action being taken by the CWU is having on customers and for the uncertainty further announcements of industrial action will cause. We are continuing to urge the CWU to call off all strike action and concentrate with us on supporting customers during the autumn and Christmas peak mail period.
In the event this planned strike action takes place, mail services on Thursday and Saturday will be very limited and delay to the collection, sorting, distribution and delivery of mail will be inevitable.
What we will do to maintain and recover service
If the industrial action goes ahead, Royal Mail has strong contingency plans to do all we can to keep mail moving and minimise disruption for our customers:
- Keep mail moving – over 900 managerial and contract drivers will move mail around the country on strike days.
- Delivering mail – we will continue to deliver premium service (Special Delivery™ and Royal Mail Tracked™) items to customers throughout the week.
- Use of around 5000 managerial and support people – to maintain premium services, open callers’ offices and to collect mail from Post Office® branches, posting boxes and customers where possible on strike days.
- Support the distribution of packets and parcels – we have five additional, dedicated and fully staffed sorting centres to aid the distribution of goods through our network.
- Deploy a targeted service recovery plan – concentrate our substantial support resources in areas most affected to deliver mail after the strikes.
More information
More information about services in your area, plus answers to your most frequently asked questions relating to the industrial action, is available on the regional pages, which you can access by clicking on the links below.
We are really sorry for the significant disruption and inconvenience the CWU’s strike action will cause customers. Royal Mail continues to urge the CWU to call off all strikes and provide customers with the service they expect at this really important time of year.
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