Planned Industrial Action in areas of London on Friday 19th June

The CWU have told Royal Mail they intend to take industrial action in London from early on Friday 19th June for 24 hrs. The planned industrial action will affect mail services in E, W, SW, N, NW and SE London postcode areas.

We’re really disappointed that the CWU plan to take industrial action at a time where we’re delivering record quality of service for our customers. We know how much customers rely on our services and we’re really sorry for the inconvenience we know this industrial action may cause you, your businesses and your customers.

Royal Mail will continue to talk with the CWU and our people underlining the impact of any disruption on customers and on Royal Mail’s business and reputation in these challenging economic times.

• Royal Mail must change. We need to modernise how our business operates for customers and are making strong progress in doing so. We cannot slow down and our customers want us to increase our pace of change.
• Royal Mail faces real challenges and opportunities; the decline in traditional mail use, the impact of the economic recessions and ever stronger competition. This is alongside the unavoidable need to modernise the ways we work and the technology we use.
• We are making real changes now, in a calm, measured and structured way, inviting continuous involvement and dialogue with our unions and our employees.
• We are seeking to avoid service disruption to our customers, whilst we change.

In the event this industrial action goes ahead we have strong contingency plans to maintain and recover services should disruption occur. (Royal Mail managers from across the country will be working in London on 19th June to keep as many services running as is possible).

We will continue to provide customers with information about the impact of this planned industrial action and advice about how they can continue to access mail services. This information will be available on www.royalmail.com/serviceupdates

This industrial action is planned to take place in areas of London. We’d like to reassure you that the rest of our national and international mails network is operating normally.

• In areas affected by the planned industrial action, we'll collect from as many business customers as resources will allow on Friday 19th June. All affected business customers will be contacted with further information about their collection or alternatives for getting mail into the Royal Mail network during the industrial action. Normal business collections will resume in affected areas on Monday 22nd June (or Saturday 20th June if customers usually have a Saturday collection).
• We will be collecting from all Post Office Counters on Friday 19th June.
• We will also collect from London pillar-boxes, although the collection time may be different to usual.

• In affected areas of London we will be operating a limited delivery service on Friday 19th June.
• If you are expecting delivery of items in London on Friday, please be aware that these may be subject to a short delay.
• We will continue to deliver Special Delivery and Royal Mail Tracked items. The guarantee for Special Delivery will remain in place for items posted into London throughout this period.
• We're advising customers to use the Special Delivery service if they need mail to be delivered urgently in the affected areas of London on Friday 19th June.
• Normal deliveries will resume in affected areas on Saturday 20th June.

• If you’re planning a large mailing which is being posted in London or into London, we're advising that where possible customers post a number of days before or after the industrial action rather than posting on Friday 19th June.
• Standard mail leaving London on Friday 19th June may be subject to a short delay. Special Delivery Mail leaving London will continue to operate as normal.
• Post Offices are not involved in this industrial action and will continue to operate as normal.
• Customers can still use Post Offices to access Royal Mail services on Friday 19th June.
• All mail received during industrial action will be sorted as quickly as we can and in the order in which it was received

• Customers who usually pick up their mail each day from delivery offices in the affected postcode areas rather than have it delivered will not be able to pick up their mail due for delivery on Friday 19th June as it will not have been sorted for collection. This will affect customers who use a PO Box, Mail Collect or Early Collect services in affected areas. Normal service will resume in affected areas on Saturday 20th June although larger volumes of mail may mean less of your mail is available at the time you normally collect it.
• Local Callers Offices will be open as usual at all Delivery Offices for you or your customers to pick up items we have previously tried to deliver. Customers will have been left a 'while you were out card'. We will not be able to redeliver items in affected areas of London on Friday 19th June.