Royal Mail takes hard line on absence

Last month Unite, the union representing postal managers, accused Royal Mail of misusing security systems to help track employees’ attendance and then resorting to dismissals to increase profit.

Managers at the company’s Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre (HWDC) boasted in the national press about tackling absence through threats and dismissals have increased profits.

The union argues that this approach has resulted in low staff morale, high turnover of staff and volatile employment relations. According to Unite, Royal Mail has failed to make links between absenteeism and “health and safety, working conditions and staff involvement and participation”.

The union points out that HWDC has a weekly attrition of two or three staff per week and that recent opinion surveys of management grades say 22% of staff have been bullied and harassed (April 2008) in October 2007 it was 21% .