Scotland’s army of front-line posties deserve better pay and protection from coronavirus - and a return to public ownership.
The calls by a Scottish MP are being made on National Postal Workers’ Day in an attempt to ease the burden on staff swamped by extra demand during the covid-19 pandemic.
Posties have become a new “emergency service” with shops shut and households in lockdown.
Marion Fellows, an SNP MP, wrote to chief executive Rico Black and Tory business secretary Alok Sharma demanding improved conditions for key-worker staff.
She said: “Royal Mail postal workers have continued to serve communities across the UK throughout the covid-19 pandemic and deserve to be properly recognised and remunerated for their work through improved pay and conditions, and the Royal Mail being brought back into public ownership to reinstate the public’s right to oversee this.
“Two simple ways of protecting our postal workers and recognising their contributions is by ensuring the personal protection equipment they have is adequate and they have enough of it, and bringing an end to advertising email, which is putting postal workers and wider communities at unnecessary risk.
“Coronavirus has highlighted exactly who our key workers are, and how essential they are. We cannot continue privatising services, taking workers’ conditions out of public control. Society must adapt to ensure fairness and wellbeing are paramount.”
In a letter to the Royal Mail boss, Fellows said junk mail should be minimised.
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And in a separate letter to Sharma, she criticised the decision by David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s Con-Dem coalition to privatise the service.
“The UK Government sold off its right to ensure improved conditions for our postal workers and improve the services it provides, instead handing that right over to private shareholders,” Fellows added.
The intervention follows calls by postal workers’ union the CWU.
The union is urging the public to show their gratitude when posties reach doors all over Britain today.
On Tuesday, the Royal Mail scrapped letter deliveries on Saturdays across the UK because of the public health crisis.
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Shane O’Riordain, managing director of marketing, regulation and corporate affairs at Royal Mail, said: “Our postmen and postwomen are working very hard across the UK in challenging conditions.
“As we said at the start of the coronavirus crisis, there will be some disruption to services.
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“We understand the importance of the postal service in keeping the UK connected at this time.
“We have also listened to our hard-working colleagues who have asked us to ease the additional burden on them if possible. As a result, we are making some temporary changes to postal services.”