The CWU claims Royal Mail employees are being bullied to do rounds that are too long for them to complete during their working hours. It is alleged this is because Royal Mail is misusing its software system, Pegasus.
Bob Gibson, CWU national official, said: "Royal Mail is using this system to meet financial savings without considering the physical realities of delivery rounds. This is putting pressure on delivery workers and leading to bullying and harassment.
"CWU has an agreement with Royal Mail to jointly review all aspects of Pegasus, but the business has reneged on this and is pushing ahead with damaging changes without input from the union. This is having disastrous consequences on services in some parts of the country.
"We're receiving high volumes of complaints and seeing a deterioration in both industrial relations and service standards. We need Royal Mail to see sense and review this system with the CWU."
But a spokesman from royal mail denied the allegations. He said: "Royal Mail carefully plans every postman and postwoman’s walk so that no-one is asked to cover a greater distance or deliver more mail than they are capable of doing and it’s complete nonsense and completely untrue to suggest otherwise.
"The speed at which we ask our postmen and women to walk is around two miles per hour and the systems we use to help us plan the most effective delivery walks are used in many other countries and have been successfully used nationwide in the UK since 1996."
But Stephen Robinson, employment partner at Davies Arnold Cooper, beleives this could lead to further tribunal cases for the organisation. He added: "Claims postmen are being bullied to walk faster on their rounds and improve efficiency should be carefully handled.
"There needs to be consideration to postmen with disabilities who cannot realistically achieve the target pace. The question of age discrimination also needs to be taken into account as this may have an effect on physical ability.
This is not to be taken lightly."
