The current round of strike action by Royal Mail workers has been extended with a continuation of the rolling programme of strikes in parts of the country. It is not a national strike, according to Royal Mail, but it does affect different parts of Royal Mail's business on different days, and is now set to continue until Friday August 17.
We again apologise that many FPJ readers will have been affected by the strike, as Lockwood Press is unable to work around the system.
The latest official Royal Mail information on the strike is the following:
• “Our International hub (HWDC) will be on official strike on from 19.00 on Monday August 6 till 19.00 on Tuesday August 7. As a result, Royal Mail's international services, Airsure, International Signed For and Airmail will be subject to delays.
• All Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) and our Network drivers will be on official strike on from 12:00 noon Tuesday August 7 till 12:00 noon on Wednesday August 8. There may be limited bulk mail collections, but these are likely to be earlier in the day than usual.
• The following Mail Centres will be on official strike from 3am on Wednesday August 8 until 3am on Thursday August 9: Gatwick; Reading and Dartford. Customers can continue to post items as usual on this day, but we recommend posting in Post Boxes only. There will be limited business collections in these areas on Wednesday August 8.
• The following Delivery Offices will be on official strike from 3am on Wednesday August 8 until 3am on Thursday August 9: Crewe; Portsmouth; Gatwick; Reading; Truro; Swansea and Dartford. We regret there will be no delivery services in these areas on Wednesday August 8. Collections will be limited to a single collection from Post Boxes outside of Post Offices, and may be earlier than the normal advertised times.
• The situation from Thursday August 9 until Friday August 17 is unclear, but the majority of Mail Centres are very likely to be on strike from 7pm on Thursday August 9 until 7pm on Friday August 10. We suggest all customer posting mail into a Mail Centre bring their mailings forward wherever possible to avoid the strike.
• Parcelforce Worldwide's guaranteed services will remain unaffected. • Royal Mail's Branch Direct, Sameday and Door to Door services remain unaffected.• All other mail services will be subject to delay. The impact of the strike action from Thursday August 9 is unclear, but we will clarify the situation as soon as possible, We have well-developed contingency plans and will continue to do everything possible to minimise the impact of strike action on our customers.”Services may also be affected by incidences of unofficial strike action.
“We will do all we can to minimise disruption to our customers, but some disruption is inevitable when unofficial action is being taken,” said Royal Mail today.
For the latest information on unofficial action, contact customer helplines - 08457 740 740 and 08457 950 950.