Royal Mail could be deluged by a wave of employment tribunal claims from temporary Christmas staff, according to reports, which claim some are still waiting to be paid, while others have not been paid the right amount.
The problems were first highlighted before Christmas, and were blamed on Angard Staffing, Royal Mail’s staffing arm outsourced to Reed Specialist Recruitment. Some staff even threatened to walk out.
The postal operator made a big deal over its plans to recruit 18,000 temporary workers across the UK over the Christmas period – 15,000 in England, 2,000 in Scotland, 1,000 in Wales and 400 in Northern Ireland – at a cost of £15m.
A Royal Mail spokesman admitted there had been payroll problems but claimed the “vast majority” of its temporary workers had been paid correctly and on time.
But online forum Royal Mail Chat, has been besieged by temporary workers as frustration grew over the range of issues faced and difficulty in contacting Angard to resolve them.
“I estimate that over 5,000 people have come to the site looking for answers,” said a spokesman. “The site has crashed twice because of the number of people coming on.”
And one employment lawyer said if it could be proved that Royal Mail had failed to pay wages properly owed to workers, it could be considered an unlawful deduction.
“Any temporary Royal Mail worker who this applies to should initially write to Royal Mail setting out why it is considered an unlawful deduction has occurred and asking for the shortfall to be rectified within a short period. If no satisfactory response is received, a claim can then be made to an employment tribunal,” she said.
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