Recruitment crisis causing long term Royal Mail delivery targets failure, union says

Royal Mail’s failure to meet delivery targets is a long term problem due to a recruitment crisis, the postal workers’ union has warned.

The group says it needs to urgently roll out changes that will see second class post on Saturdays scrapped.

Royal Mail said 91.6% of second class mail was delivered within three working days, while 77.5% of first class post was delivered the next working day between September 29 and November 30.

Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Dave Ward said: “These results prove conclusively that the company’s failure to deliver for customers is a long-term problem.

“These failures are due to a recruitment crisis that has been caused by the decision to impose low wages and poor conditions on new starters in 2022.

“This devaluing of a postal worker’s job, combined with a toxic managerial culture, has created chaos and demoralisation in almost every workplace across the country.

“The company will claim that the delays can only be resolved if the USO (Universal Service Obligation) reform is implemented immediately.

“However, Royal Mail’s proposal for implementing the new changes will only make matters worse and will result in Ofcom fining the company out of existence.”

Royal Mail said the figures mark an improvement on the previous quarter, but still falls short of the targets set by Ofcom, which are for 93% of first-class post to be delivered the next day and 98.5% of second-class to be delivered within three days.

Royal Mail chief executive Alistair Cochrane said: “While these results show improvements for both first and second-class mail, we recognise that our performance in letters is still not good enough.”

Published: 21/02/2026 by Radio NewsHub