Mail found dumped at fast-food outlet

10:25am Thursday 12th April 2001

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after “a small quantity” of opened letters were found dumped in the toilets of an Orpington fast-food restaurant.

The Communications Worker's Union (CWU) says the incident is part of a larger problem at the Orpington sorting office.

Cleaning staff at McDonald's, in Orpington High Street, called the Royal Mail's Orpington sorting office and the abandoned mail was retrieved.

Martin Ackerman, CWU, branch secretary said: “The incident at McDonald's is the result of having to employ more casual staff to cover a backlog caused by a new system. It obviously takes time for a new system to bed in and post office workers have been reluctant to do as much overtime as is needed.”

The new system means while all workers go out on first delivery rounds, all the second deliveries rounds are done by half the staff, leaving the other half in the office sorting and preparing for the next day.

This means not all the rounds are completed in the two-and-a-half hour maximum and, unless staff do overtime, a backlog of post builds up.

Recently, senior management staff from all over the south east have been spotted delivering mail on a Sunday, in Cray Valley Road, Orpington.

Royal Mail spokesman Val Goodchild said it is not unusual for management to deliver letters on Sunday. She said it is part of the Royal Mail's commitment to delivering a good service.

She said the mail had been dumped in McDonald's by two casual staff employed at the Orpington office.

Mrs Goodchild said it was only “a small quantity of letters” which had been “tampered” with and the agency which supplied the staff had been dropped.

She said an inquiry had been launched and anyone tampering with mail could be prosecuted.

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