Royal Mail has been accused of being in “absolute breach” of its universal service obligation as communities on Islay and Jura are left without delivery of mail.
Under the Postal Services Act 2011, which allowed for the service to be privatised, the company is required to ensure a six-day a week, one price goes anywhere, service for the delivery and collection of letters (and five days a week for parcels) throughout the United Kingdom.
As reported by The Herald though residents on Islay and Jura have been left without delivery for long stretches due to a number of staff leaving Royal Mail, with former postal workers citing poor pay and stressful conditions.
Read More: 'I was living off donations' Islay, its postie shortage and a community with no mail
Councillor for Kintyre & the Islands, Alastair Redman, believes that the company is failing to fulfil its obligation for universal service.
He told The Herald: “They’re in complete breach of universal service, it’s not a universal service.
“In the villages it’s bad, I live in Port Charlotte, but my father stays in a croft on the backroads between Port Charlotte and Portnahaven – he’s waiting even longer.
“He hasn’t had post in a long time, the only time he gets post is when one of my brothers picks it up for him at the sorting office.
“That’s just simply not good enough. You cannot expect members of the public, who have jobs and their own commitments to do Royal Mail’s job for them because they’re not willing or able to hire staff or pay staff a correct wage.”
Craig Anderson, Scottish regional secretary for the Communication Workers Union added: “You either have to address the work load or you have to address the terms and conditions. The terms and conditions are set nationally, standardised pay grades and things like that.
“The company, I would say, has been mismanaged. They don’t necessarily have a manager on the island it’s managed off-island.
“This is one of the fears that I have with regard to where the business is going because I think a lot of people who work for the company will look at the new model they’re looking at – which we’re in dispute with at the moment – and a lot of people will look at it and think ‘well, I could go and work in a far easier job earning the same or more money’."
And Mr Redman urged those in central office to come to Islay and Jura and see the situation for themselves.
He said: “If we could get one of the high-up managers to come and visit Islay and see the situation for themselves.
“There have been many constituents who have contacted me and offered to work part-time for Royal Mail and they’ve asked centrally and been refused.
"So it seems Royal Mail are refusing staff that don’t quite suit their structure – they don’t want someone who’s part-time, they want someone who is full-time. Well, maybe in order to alleviate some of the problem you take what you can get and, rather than having no employees helping out maybe a few additional part-time employees helping out in the seasonal time when offered locally should be snapped right up.
“I was in the Co-op today, a couple of constituents spoke to me and I was shocked to hear they’d offered to work for Royal Mail and Royal Mail had refused.
“It does feel like at this point on Islay Royal Mail is no longer functioning, unfortunately and you cannot keep running this institution on fumes – it needs the proper support.
Read More: 'There simply aren't the people' Royal Mail Islay issues lead to fears for island posties
“Also, the management want to speak to the people on the ground. If they’re raising an issue that something is wrong then their concerns have to be listened to.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We do not operate a policy of requiring customers to collect their own mail on Islay. Every item of mail is important to Royal Mail. We are very sorry for any recent delays that our customers may have experienced.
"We have been affected by some resourcing issues locally, which we are in the process of addressing. Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team on 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com.”
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