Branches and Reps will be aware that over the weekend a series of announcements were made in relation the introduction of new tougher Tier-4 Coronavirus/Covid-19 lockdown restrictions across the UK. Tier-4 is the toughest of the county’s five tiers of restrictions (0-4). For those affected, Tier-4 will essentially be a return to the full lockdown.
As a result of the weekend’s announcements from the UK Governments regarding the introduction of the ‘Tier-4 Lockdown’ arrangements to tackle the rapidly rising Covid-19 infection numbers and faster transmission rate of the newly detected Covid-19 Virus strain, the Royal Mail Executive Board have decided, as an ‘emergency measure’ to withdraw their current shared van arrangements which they state is on the basis of putting the safety of the workforce and communities Royal Mail operates in first. The Union certainly welcomes that prompt reaction to the Government announcements as the Union’s position has remained that shared vans should not have been reintroduced in the first place (See LTB No. 489/20 dated 6 October 2020).
Royal Mail state that that this is a ‘temporary cessation’ of the use of shared vans in Tier-4/Lockdown areas which will be kept under review.
This means shared vans should stop in the England listed Tier 4/Lockdown areas and all of Wales, with immediate effect. Shared vans should cease in mainland Scotland and Northern Ireland from 26 December.
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