Madam, - Three cheers for the postal strike! Anyone I wish to hear from e-mails me and gets a reply far quicker than by snail mail. I no longer have to force my front door open through a swathe of junk mail. No bills darken my humour. Any I have I pay by internet banking.
Another bastion of union-run public "services" will soon founder, and I for one will not mourn its passing. - Yours, etc.,
KEVIN PRENDERGAST, Templeogue Lodge, Dublin 6W.
Madam, - The situation at An Post is wholly management's responsibility. I have been in An Post for 17 years and seen our management run the morale of the staff down to rock bottom
It has been widely reported in the media that postmen in Dublin earn €43,000 a year. In fact a postman's basic wage is €22,880 a year. I don't know any postman who earns close to the figure quoted. If he is on delivery he gets a night duty allowance for attending before 8 a.m., worth a paltry €3 an hour. Most are on duty at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday.
A postman on nights gets this payment, which totals €108 extra for a week on nights, a joke to my mind. To show how much we are valued, our service pay after 20 years amounts to €2.54 a week!
Now we have a Hitler-like management attempting to impose a measure that will affect our working day by taking the preparation time out of the equation, thus reducing basic salary, not overtime.
Postmen only want fair play and are willing to embrace change through discussion and agreement. - Yours, etc.,
MARK DORAN, Postman, Dublin Mails Operations, Dublin 12.