A POPULAR postman with 26 years service with Royal Mail has been left devastated after losing his job following what he believes was a technology error.
Jim Moffat is a well known face in the G52 postal area, renowned for always going above and beyond for the customers on his patch.
But Jim was suspended at Christmas following an issue with a mail collection at Cardonald College and then sacked at the end of January.
He appealed the decision in March and has been waiting weeks for Royal Mail to give a decision on his future.
Meanwhile, anxious punters in Cardonald have launched a petition calling for his reinstatement that has gathered nearly 500 signatures so far.
Customers have also been writing on local Facebook groups asking where Postman Jim has vanished to in a bid to track him down.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said it does not comment on individual cases.
Jim said: "Without blowing my own trumpet, I was a good postman and all my punters loved me.
"They thought I had changed delivery route and no one knew I had been sacked yet but somebody found out about it on Friday and it's all gone a bit crazy.
"People think that if they sack the postie then it must be for stealing but that is not the case – it's just an absolute farce what I've been sacked for."
Jim claims he was doing his normal collection on December 8 last year when his manager asked him to deliver packages to the Hillington estate.
An alternative pick up was arranged for Cardonald College as he would not have time and the colleague agreed, he said.
The Cardonald College parcels were not collected but Royal Mail management claim that Jim's PDA barcode scanner showed the packages had been scanned.
It is possible for a postman to fake a collection by photographing a barcode at a pick up location and then scanning the barcode without collecting the mail.
This is what Jim says he was accused of and he claims that his PDA has never been checked throughout the disciplinary process.
These allegations were put to Royal Mail but the firm declined to comment on the specifics.
A spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on an individual case of this type.”
Jim says that he has also lost elements of his pension entitlement after losing his job, which is a blow after more than a quarter of a century of service.
He added: "After 26 years on the job I get sacked for lack of integrity.
"If I had stolen something or been caught doing something wrong then I would not have bothered fighting it because if you get caught doing something, you get caught doing something.
"But this, scanning barcodes, I know people do it but I would never do it.
"I also would not have had time to get up to Cardonald to scan the PDA because I was over at Hillington."
Jim said the wait through the Christmas period and New Year for news was agonising and now he has been waiting since March 4 for the outcome of his appeal.
Yet, despite it all, he says he would return to Royal Mail if he had the chance.
The 50-year-old said: "My oldest daughter is 25 and my youngest is 20 and I've been a postman all of their life.
"I've been having the discussion with my wife about whether I would go back.
"But half my life is in there. I loved the job.
"There's not a lot of people in this day and age who can say they love their job but I do."
Over the years Jim has made himself part of the community and even does the weekly shopping for an elderly woman who has no one else to support her.
Last year, on his 50th birthday, his customers gave him a guard of honour in the street to mark the occasion.
Jim added: "Lack of integrity is not me.
"I have done this route for so long that my punters knitted my daughter's baby clothes when she was born.
"Anybody who does something wrong deserves to be sacked but this is not my error and you think all the good stuff I had put into Royal Mail would be taken in to account."
The Bring Back Jim campaign has now spread from Facebook to TikTok with customers sharing their desire to see the postie back on his route.
Customer Rita, who set up the petition, said in Jim's support: "He’s definitely the best postman without a doubt.
"He's always happy, always knows people by their first names. He looks out for the oldies.
"He understands everyone’s working situation if you're nightshift like myself and many others in the community.
"We’ve all been worried about him since Christmas.
"We all miss Jim massively. [This is] just a nightmare really."
Jim's union, the CWU, which is representing him, was contacted for comment.
