Victimised Royal Mail worker speaks out: “More than thirty years of service ended in twenty seconds!”

[stage3]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/ ... -o17.html

Our correspondent

Des, a long-serving delivery worker for Royal Mail in Chester-Le-Street County Durham, in the north-east of England, spoke with the World Socialist Web Site about his victimisation. He was sacked by the company on trumped-up charges last year and abandoned by the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (PWRFC) has received reports from Royal Mail workers across the UK about managers taking disciplinary action against them for being unable to complete their deliveries on the pretext of “intentional delay of mail”. Workloads have been ramped-up because of the largest cost-cutting revisions in Royal Mail history during 2022-3, in line with last year’s pro-company agreement endorsed by the CWU to enforce mass job losses and the tearing up of terms and conditions.

Royal Mail is making delivery workers the scapegoat for the rundown of the mail service, while the company prioritises parcels over letters in violation of its statutory legal requirements under the Universal Service Obligation. This new norm has become the basis for institutionalised management bullying to embed a two-tier workforce, with new entrants brought in on inferior pay and conditions while long-serving postal workers on “legacy” terms are driven out.

The PWRFC welcomes all those who want to take part in a fightback against the collusion of the CWU bureaucracy with Royal Mail. CWU officials led by Dave Ward are currently colluding with the take-over bid by billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, backed by the Labour government, to facilitate a further race-to-the-bottom by transforming the mail service into a 24/7 parcel courier company run exclusively for private equity investors’ profit.

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I worked for Royal Mail for 31 years and had a spotless record before I was dismissed on June 8, 2023, for “intentional delay of mail”, which is totally untrue. It was a trumped-up charge and the entire conduct procedure was a disgrace.


Des
There was a lad who was also sacked with me, Ross, my CDV partner (van share) who had only been with Royal Mail for 18 months. This happened while the national dispute was still taking place. I had taken part in all the days of strike action.

I came back from a long weekend on Tuesday May 9, the same day Ross returned from a two-week holiday. There was a load of “door-to-doors” (commercial flyers) which had piled up because our shared duty had not been fully covered.


I got all the mail in both frames first thing in the morning. Ross did not start until 9 am. The manager came around and said, “Where are the door to doors?” I explained to him I was going to take a tray out and put them behind my bundles. He wanted them all put in the frames. This was done by two members of staff and the manager who was sniggering. I informed him we would not get finished on time, but he said, “Oh no, you will get it done!” On three occasions I informed him I would be bringing back mail before I left the office to go on delivery.

At our office it was the common practice (not policy) to ring the manager by 1pm if you were unable to complete your delivery. The manager rang my CDV partner at 1.10pm who informed him of what I had already said, that we would be bringing mail back. I had a family commitment that day and could not work over my contracted hours as I had done so many times in the past just to complete the workload.

We took the mail back with the two bags and the manager collared me and asked why we had not done our lapsing (additional work added to the existing duties of postal workers by dividing up other walks). He had removed 15 minutes of lapsing for us to do half the door to doors on a busy day, especially as it was the day after the King’s Coronation Bank Holiday. He spoke to me out of sight of the CCTV behind a door (a conversation he would later deny took place).

I placed the two mail bags on my bench, which was the accepted practice in terms of dropped bags, and left at my time, 2.40pm. My workplace union rep returned to the office just after 3pm and they were still there. He was my main witness. This is all verified by CCTV.

When I came in the next morning, I spoke to the assistant manager about the mail left from the day before and the fact the bags were now on the floor. He told me he did not know anything about this, which immediately set off alarm bells for me. I asked him what he wanted me to do, and he said, just take the mail out the bags and put them in the frame and out on delivery, which I did. Then manager came out and started to take photographs of the frames and empty bags on the floor. He also rang my CDV partner when we were on delivery at 1pm who explained that I had already informed the assistant manager we’d be bringing two bags of mail back.

When I was leaving work, I was approached by both the managers who said, “When were you going to tell us you had two bags left?” I was taken aback and explained I had already informed them this was the case.

The next morning, May 11, when I came in the manager pulled me up and said, “We are going to have an interview with you”. I was given a large brown envelope with a letter and allowed an hour and a half to prepare with my union rep. The interview lasted up to 2 hours, and I was told it was a fact-finding so I was not allowed to ask any questions.

I was taken off my duty to work in the office for around four weeks and told that I could not speak to anyone, which restricted my ability to ask for any witnesses over what had occurred with the managers.

My case was then passed up the line to a manager from outside the delivery office as the conduct manager and I was appointed a CWU area rep to present me. I was initially told by the union area rep this would probably go no further, but I was then taken into a conduct meeting on May 18 with this manager who behaved like a real henchman.


At no time during the fact finding or the conduct meeting was the accusation made that I had hid two bags of mail. This was only made later, based on interviews with the delivery office manager and the assistant manager which were not conducted until May 30 and 31. I received copies of their statements on June 3.

Instead of having the right to reply to these accusations in a further conduct meeting, the conduct manager came down to the delivery office on June 8 and called me into a meeting where I was sacked for gross misconduct for “intentional delay of mail.” More than thirty years of service was ended in twenty seconds. Ross was dismissed thirty minutes later.


Royal Mail workers on strike at Clifton Road, Cambridge, November, 2022
There was nothing independent about the later Appeal meeting on June 30. A Royal Mail manager was brought in from outside who showed no impartiality, he discounted the evidence of my witnesses and totally backed up the local managers. I received notification on August 5 that my appeal had failed.

To get any kind of closure I made an application for an Employment Tribunal (ET), but Ross was unable to bring an ET because he did not qualify for unfair dismissal as you need to be employed for two years. The accusation of “hiding the mail” was fundamental to my sacking according to the conduct manager, and yet Royal Mail’s solicitors chose to miss this out of their defence paperwork. This silence speaks volumes.

My CWU branch secretary went on long-term sick from August, but I only found out at the end of October as nothing was happening. I had a tribunal date for February. My wife Pauline, who was in my corner all the way, had to do everything to meet the deadlines. Pauline had spoken to Tony Rupa, CWU Head of Legal Services, who said they had no idea about my case. UnionLine (legal support for CWU and GMB members) said I didn’t have above a 50 percent chance of winning and would not take it on, so Pauline asked for it to be reviewed.

The CWU put her on to an ET panellist, Robert Wood. He told Pauline it was a very strong case but then just over a week later it wasn’t. He basically rehashed Royal Mail’s position that I had not told the manager the bags were there on my return. Also, that even though I worked in a partnership of two I should have spoken to the boss at 1pm as well as my CDV partner. He said I would be torn apart at the ET and made to pay costs. There was no mention of management withholding their cooked-up “evidence” about the two allegedly hidden bags of mail. Wood had also previously said he believed Royal Mail were ready to settle and he could possibly negotiate a payment of £10,000. But I was not going to accept such a low-ball offer to deny me the right to clear my name and expose my frame-up by management.

The only reason I dropped my ET case in early January was due to lack of CWU support and being threatened with costs. I have since learnt it is under 1 percent of cases where costs are awarded against the claimant in an employment tribunal case. Basically, I feel I was conned by the CWU.

What got me is that I’d been paying union subs since day one of joining Royal Mail, but CWU officials were not interested in my case and standing up for members against management.

[NWpostie]

You only have to see how the Postmasters were stitched up, I foresee another scandal in the making which will eventually blow up in the delivery manager's faces, it will follow them into retirement and those still working will be put under the microscope.

The Post Office scandal is just the beginning.

[Geordiepapa]

I can sympathise with you. Your case exactly mirrors what happened to me two years ago (after working for Royal Mail for 32 years). Lying office managers (who were previous posties who were too lazy to carry out deliveries), useless backing from CWU and absolutely no backing from Unionline solicitors who told me the same - no chance of winning a case. I believe they probably do this in the majority of cases and its all down to cost. I ended up withdrawing my E.T. case as I couldn't continue, too stressful. Good luck for the future and I hope you get justice for what you've been through.

[moon71]

Good article.

Starts with a fictional story about Des. Next week it will be Norman from Manchester or Dave from Southhampton.

Follows through with the typical caption, CWU colluding with Royal Mail take over. That ticks a repeated box.

Makes the false premise that we are getting rid of letters for parcels, so out of touch as we already are a parcel business, delivering letters as a side line.

How out of touch is the PWRFC? It's like they don't even work at Royal Mail.

Still, for the gullible, it's a good canvassing exercise. Pour poison on the CWU, Royal Mail, and see if they can get another 5 members before the year is out.

[Tman]

I can sympathise with you. Your case exactly mirrors what happened to me two years ago (after working for Royal Mail for 32 years). Lying office managers (who were previous posties who were too lazy to carry out deliveries), useless backing from CWU and absolutely no backing from Unionline solicitors who told me the same - no chance of winning a case. I believe they probably do this in the majority of cases and its all down to cost. I ended up withdrawing my E.T. case as I couldn't continue, too stressful. Good luck for the future and I hope you get justice for what you've been through.

You do realise that it's all a made-up article and one of a series saying essentially the same thing, don't you?

[NWpostie]

How do know it's fictionalised ?

Surely such things can happen in the workplace.

[moon71]

How do know it's fictionalised ?

Surely such things can happen in the workplace.

It's to help and promote the WSWS. Nothing more, sensationalism at best. Promoted with bigotry an inflament to draw in the consumer.

[stage3]

Good article.

Starts with a fictional story about Des. Next week it will be Norman from Manchester or Dave from Southhampton.

Follows through with the typical caption, CWU colluding with Royal Mail take over. That ticks a repeated box.

Makes the false premise that we are getting rid of letters for parcels, so out of touch as we already are a parcel business, delivering letters as a side line.

How out of touch is the PWRFC? It's like they don't even work at Royal Mail.

Still, for the gullible, it's a good canvassing exercise. Pour poison on the CWU, Royal Mail, and see if they can get another 5 members before the year is out.

You have made a completely unfounded accusation which I am sure many will see as an act on desperation and only discredits yourself. What you are in a flap about is an "inconvenient truth" and you can only resort to smear. You even posted your latest rant against the WSWS and Postal Workers Rank and File Committee directly below a comment from an ex-postie who explained he suffered the the same victimisation as Des at the hands of Royal Mail and was thrown under the bus by the CWU. For the record I am posting a short reply from Des which is all your diatribe merits "Sadly the "fictional story" about my case is 100 percent true. Close to 300 pages of evidence confirm this. What evidence do you have? Let me answer that. None."

[moon71]

Can you make one single post or reply without your bigoted bias behaviour against the CWU. Probably not.

And to add, without evidence, your whole post is just hearsay.

[Tman]

Hearsay is giving it too much credence. It's fiction verging on propaganda.

[Londonsburning]

It's fiction verging on propaganda.

The same as the Royal Mail claims of "we care about the mental/physical wellbeing of our staff" and "Pay that's 10% above the market average in our sector" then?

It's just utter lies.

[Basildon Bond]

Before we get ten pages of replies throwing rock-shaped insults at each other about who's lying or who's got their head in the sand blah blah blah. Perhaps, if these articles are published, then there needs to be checkable facts and photos that back up the written text? In this article there is a photo of a guy with "Des" written underneath. Surely if "Des" has been sacked he can "go on the record" now without any fear of comeback from RM? Maybe show a photo of him holding his old ID card outside of the office he used to work at? And/or maybe show a photo of a termination letter (slightly redacted without a full home address) to prove the point? Possibly get a couple of his old workmates to provide a quotable character reference? Or would that get them sacked too for merely speaking about an ex-postie?

At the moment I can see the article from both sides. I could reasonably think that a manager has it in for a particular postie and exaggerates a situation (an honest mistake or misunderstanding) in order to get the postie sacked - mainstream media may not be interested in running the story so it has to be published via other channels. However, and quite equally, I can see an article being written that exaggerates a real-life situation, or is spun in a particular way for propaganda or advertising that benefits a particular minority group of Royal Mail staff. Or it come be completely made up and a pure false account of an otherwise believable situation written solely as it fits the narrative of a subset of staff.

I don't know which is true at the moment ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. We are in an era of fake news and AI generated content. Who knows what is false and being passed off as true?

I think the people publishing this articles should consider ways to improve the situation. I think the onus is on them to take steps to improve the articles as they are the ones broadcasting the information. Without a change the articles, and the people publishing and promoting them will sure have - and expect to have - their credibility questioned. If you want my trust you'll have to earn it (don't just expect it).

[moon71]

And if the story be true, what could the PWRFC do that the huge CWU couldn't.

Nothing.

All 'Des' needed was a screenshot of the phonecall on the day he cut off and case closed.

[Tman]

And if the story be true, what could the PWRFC do that the huge CWU couldn't.

Nothing.

All 'Des' needed was a screenshot of the phonecall on the day he cut off and case closed.

Not hard, is it? People would ignore those ads which say "BIll from Birmingham won £100,000 by buying our et cetc" but seem to happily swallow a story about "Des" merely because it fits in with RM = a bad employer narrative.

[stage3]

Not the first time I've raised it but everyone on here uses aliases to protect their identity as a safeguard so they can speak freely without fear of management reprisal.

But here we have a few trolls trying to maintain that management bullying and intimidation is an invention and even having the front to vent their spleen against a long serving postal worker speaking out against his unfair dismissal. References to "Des" in quotation marks (shocking no surname) who supplied his photograph, cited his delivery office and went through a clear time line of his victimisation and that of his colleague. That is not "going on the record" apparently, you need to produce an old ID card, stand outside your office or provide a character reference. Have you heard yourself lately.

It is not hard to work out where this diatribe is coming from, Moon71 fear of pouring "poison on Royal Mail and the CWU " and Tman opposing the "narrative" of Royal Mail as a bad employer. So you jump on a thread where other postal workers start to relate their own experiences with victimisations to spew out your bile and discourage any further discussion. Like I said an an inconvenient truth which has got your knickers in a twist.