Pay dispute means mail is being sorted in the homes of post office workers.
An Post has said the sorting of post by individual workers in their own homes has not affected deliveries in rural areas. The Irish Postmasters' Union (IPU) which represents members throughout the country is refusing to allow post to be sorted at rural post offices every Friday and Monday in a dispute over pay.
It is not business as usual at the local post office in the village of Ballylanders in County Limerick. Normally, postmistress Mary O'Brien and two postmen attached to the area would sort the mail at the post office. However, the sorting room is empty today as the two postmen had to go to Kilmallock and Mary O'Brien has seen no postmen today. This action will continue every Friday and Monday until a dispute over pay is resolved.
They say they're getting €2 per hour for the sorting work when equivalent work elsewhere in An Post is getting €42.
Tom Kelleher, of the national executive of the IPU, says that members of the union are doing work that they are not being paid for.
As a result of this action, 220 of the 1,100 post people who work to rural offices had to sort the post in their own homes. An Post refused to allow RTÉ News to film this at home sorting. An Post has dismissed suggestions that the security of the mail is being compromised by it being sorted in the homes of postal workers.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 November 2002. The reporter is Cathy Halloran.
