York 'more efficient on sorting'

9:30am Wednesday 12th November 2008

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UNION leaders fighting plans to scrap the sorting of second class mail in York have produced Royal Mail statistics to back their case.

The company has decided to transfer all second class mail sorting from York to Leeds, sparking fears that it may later move all other mail sorting as well and close the York offices, with the loss of more than 350 jobs.

The CWU has claimed in a letter to area general manager Alison Wright that, according to Royal Mail’s own figures for the third quarter, York offers both a cheaper and a higher quality service than Leeds.

The union’s north-east regional representative, Bob McGuire, said that Ms Wright had stated in a letter that the business was facing stiff competition and must take advantage of clear opportunities to make productivity improvements.

But he claimed that York’s unit costs were currently below those of Leeds by 0.38 pence per unit. “Therefore, it would make sense to leave the mail at York,” he said. “York’s mail centres quality beats Leeds in most quality measurement areas… “We would suggest that if you are trying to make a productive and cost-efficient business, then you could look at putting domestic mail into York and business mail into Leeds.”

He said that the union would like to meet and discuss such matters in more detail to try to avert all second class mail being diverted to Leeds.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “Alison Wright will respond to Bob McGuire on the points raised in his letter.”

The company has said previously that the move, intended to improve operational efficiency, would not result in the loss of any of the York centre’s 360 jobs, because of the way staff was managed at the mail centre.

And it has said there are “no plans at the moment” to transfer any further mail processing from York to Leeds, although a sorting office employee has told The Press that staff feared the worst. “We are worried this is the thin end of the wedge – that it could be death by a thousand cuts.”