Bosses confident of jobs for Royal Mail workers
Royal Mail bosses today said they were 'confident' they would find jobs for workers following the closure of Shropshire's only sorting office.
Shrewsbury Mail Centre in Castlefields is due to shut in 2014 leaving around 240 staff facing an uncertain future. Shropshire's post will be processed at Chester, Cardiff and Wolverhampton – in a move Royal Mail say is necessary due to declining mail volumes.
The Communication Workers' Union claims the closure will cost 170 jobs and take £3 million out of the local economy.
However, today Geoff Braden, Royal Mail's process and collections director for Shropshire, said there would be jobs for Shropshire workers wishing to stay with the company.
He said: "Having confirmed the decision to close the mail centre, we are developing more detailed plans on the alternatives available to colleagues.
"This will involve talking to each individual about the options and their personal preferences, in line with our national agreements.
Alternative
"Those discussions will look at individual circumstances, including mobility, and ensure the alternative jobs we offer are reasonable.
"We are confident we will find jobs for everyone who wants to stay with Royal Mail and will continue to share all of this information with our unions."
Mr Braden said Royal Mail was determined to avoid compulsory redundancies and welcomed talks with unions.
He added 180 delivery office jobs, co-located on the same site in Castlefields, would not be affected by closure of the sorting office.
Mr Braden said the sorting office closure was needed to maintain a 'world class postal service'.
He said: "We are fully aware these changes to our operations in Shrewsbury will, unfortunately, impact on operational colleagues.
"Change is absolutely essential to meet customers' expectations of a world class postal service, ensure we operate efficiently and provide a great quality of service in a smaller and radically changing market.
"In Shropshire and Mid Wales, mail volumes of items posted to addresses in the area from other parts of the country have fallen by 24.3 per cent in five years."
