Royal Mail losing 400 postal workers a week, says union

Key points

• Union says Royal Mail is losing about 400 postal workers a week, up from 330 before DM26.
• CWU has told members to pause further DM26 roll-out until a plan is agreed.
• Royal Mail says the roll-out is 90% complete and service quality will improve.

Royal Mail is losing about 400 postal workers a week, according to the Communication Workers Union. The union says the figure was around 330 a week from a workforce of 83,000 before the company began rolling out DM26, a system that reorganises delivery routes.

DM26 allows second class post to be delivered only every other weekday, while first class mail and parcels are meant to go out daily. It has been introduced in about 1,000 of Royal Mail's 1,200 delivery offices.

Union calls for pause

The CWU has told its members to pause further roll-out of the new system until a plan can be agreed with Royal Mail to address problems. The union says DM26 is working in around 500 offices but has run into significant problems in hundreds of others.

Martin Walsh of the CWU said: "Put simply, if a boat is already taking on water, adding more passengers is unlikely to solve the problem."

We all think this Christmas will be the worst ever, for us and our customers

— a postman in the East Midlands

Royal Mail's response

Royal Mail says the reforms are part of its plan to deliver a more efficient and financially sustainable service. It says the roll-out is 90% complete and is on track to be running in all offices by Christmas.

The company says it is now delivering to 95% of addresses every day across the UK, up from 88% before the roll-out, and is hiring an additional 22,000 temporary workers over Christmas. It also plans to cut 2,500 head office and other supporting roles by the end of 2027.

Staff and regulator concerns

Postal workers speaking anonymously to the BBC said parcels are still being prioritised, letters left behind, and time wasted sorting mail into first and second class. Some workers tracked their steps and found they rose by a quarter or a third after the switchover.

Ofcom has fined Royal Mail more than £37m in the last three years for missing delivery targets. A group of MPs will meet the regulator on Wednesday, and Postal Services Minister Kate Dearden said the company's improvement plan must deliver tangible improvements for customers.