Industrial action delays rural postal deliveries

An Post says that rural postal deliveries are suffering delays of over an hour each day due to continuing industrial action by the Irish Postmasters' Union.

There were no signs of peace moves yesterday as the dispute headed towards a second week.

A spokesman for An Post said that the company had put in place arrangements to deal with the industrial action. As a result, the dispute was not causing major inconvenience for An Post or its customers. Mail volumes are low at this time of the year, the spokesman added. However, the secretary-general of the IPU, Mr John Kane, said that the industrial action was "having the desired effect". Management was putting in "huge resources", he claimed, yet delays of two to four hours were common.

In some areas, mail was being left behind in sorting offices, to be delivered a day late, Mr Kane said. The union was "happy the way things are" and planned to continue its action indefinitely.