DOZENS of temporary staff hired to help sort Christmas post for Royal Mail have been left unpaid for two weeks, they have said.
Up to 60 workers who signed up to the Angard agency and started work on November 28 were told they would work one week in lieu, but expected their first pay slip on Friday, December 9.
Anthony Hyatt, 52, works as a motorbike instructor, but took on the temporary work for four weeks and said he and his fellow workers were all owed about £200 for their efforts, working eight-hour shifts over the last two weeks.
He said: “I signed up for a bit of extra money around Christmas, but one of my co-workers has been out of work for two years, and travels up from Leicester.
“We spoke to one of the managers at Royal Mail who said they were aware of the situation but didn’t explain it to us. They said they’d got the details to the agency in in time and said the agency was working into the night to get the money into our accounts by Saturday (December 10).”
Anthony said: “I was offered a job doing some courier work, but turned it down to work at the Royal Mail. I might be lucky and be able to get the job back, but there’s no guarantee.
“I still haven’t been paid, so I left. My understanding is people in other branches are owed over £600 in wages.”
Anthony quit his temporary post last Monday, but by yesterday he said he had still to receive the wages owed to him Another worker said: “I would say 99 per cent of the 180-plus temp workers here at York have not been paid at all. Others have been paid an absolute pittance – amounts such as £3.75 for a full week’s work.”
She said some staff had walked out over the problem.
Royal Mail spokesman Heulyn Gwyn Davies said: “The majority of temporary staff have been paid on time and correctly. We are aware of some seasonal workers – a small proportion of the total – who have unfortunately not been paid when they should have been.
“We are urgently resolving this with our external supplier and in most cases, the people concerned will be paid as quickly as possible. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused to any temporary worker.
“We do understand how important it is that they receive their correct pay on time.”
Mr Davies also said Royal Mail would still be delivering mail to all York customers on a daily basis, and no backlog had been caused by the problems.
