Whistleblower alleges bullying and daily lies

Letter claims Oban sorting office is ‘appalling’

Parcels arriving at Oban sorting office can be waiting up to four days before being delivered in the town, a whistleblower has claimed.

An anonymous letter sent to The Oban Times has described the state of the town’s sorting office as ‘disorganised and appalling’ and also made claims of bullying and ‘daily lies’ being told to cover up delivery delays.

However, Royal Mail has refuted those allegations, saying it is ‘a slight’ on the jobs its workers do ‘to provide a first-class service’ in Oban and surrounding areas.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said there had been no cuts in the delivery office and insisted the Oban office was ‘clear of mail every day’, adding ‘we can assure our customers of this’.

The whistleblower’s letter followed a recent front-page story in The Oban Times reporting chaotic staff shortages at the sorting office meant Taynuilt and neighbouring villages were getting hit-andmiss mail.

But according to the letter: ‘Taynuilt not receiving mail is only the tip of the iceberg. Currently in the office it is a daily occurrence for mail to not be delivered.

‘This has been due to ruthless hour cuts in the office.’

Claims were also made about a growing culture of workers being bullied and harassed for physically not being able to deliver mail in ‘unrealistic’ new time frames. The letter claimed that due to time changes and new restrictions, workers were finding they had no choice but to leave sections.

The letter’s author said workers had raised concerns but they were ‘largely ignored’.

The whistleblower went on to say that in the past eight months, 10 ‘experienced and reliable’ postal workers have left. Stress levels were also up, turnover of workers and long-term sickness rates had also increased, it said.

The whistleblower claims that when Royal Mail tells people their parcels have ‘not arrived yet at the Oban office and must be delayed elsewhere’, ‘in reality it can be sitting in a cage in the office waiting to go out – sometimes three to four days after it has first arrived in Oban’.

Royal Mail emails telling customers that tracked parcels were not delivered due to the address being ‘inaccessible’ meant delivery was not attempted, said the letter.

‘There has been weekends where an entire delivery of almost 400 plus houses has not received a single letter. The most common areas not getting mail is behind the hospital [in Oban], Dunbeg, Taynuilt, around Dalintart Drive and large parcels around town’, ended the letter signed by ‘a disappointed, overworked and under appreciated postman’.

In response, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘Locally, our quality of service is high for a rural area and we are committed to delivering a high quality of service to all our customers.

‘As a commercial business, Royal Mail is responding to the huge growth in electronic communications and decline in letter volumes, while seeing a high volume of parcels and online shopping which need to be delivered to customers.

‘We continually need to be more efficient and as we have done in many other offices across Scotland and the UK, we are aligning workload with mail volumes. This means we are currently reassessing all deliveries and workload so that they are fit for purpose.

‘We also expect all our staff to work to our high standards in delivery every day of the week.

‘Recently, we did have six people leave and we have already recruited into these roles.’

The spokesman also told The Oban Times: ‘There are no bullying and harassment cases logged within the office.

There is a new management team in place due to the previous manager transferring to another part of the UK for personal reasons.

‘The delivery office is clear of mail every day and as Royal Mail also carries out work locally for our sister company, Parcelforce Worldwide, there may be parcels in the office for them to be delivered. These parcels are on a 48-hour timescale delivery which is different from Royal Mail,’ they continued. ‘There are two long-term sick personnel off in the office, one of which is due to long-term medical conditions.’

Oban councillor Roddy McCuish, who worked as a postman for almost 20 years, said: ‘I’m concerned about the present state of deliveries in Oban. Royal Mail was always a job to be proud of – good conditions and good camaraderie – but since privatisation all that seems to have gone by the way.

‘Given Oban is the biggest growing town in Argyll and Bute with 300 houses [planned] in Dunbeg, each will have a letter box. If Royal Mail can’t cope now, goodness knows how it will cope then.’