Three million letters remain undelivered across south London following the continued dispute between postal workers and Royal Mail (RM).

Small businesses relying on cheques and residents waiting for important letters and celebration cards have been hardest hit following a series of one day strikes, the last of which took place on Wednesday.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is currently staging a series of one day strikes opposing changes in working conditions brought on by the implementation of Pegasus.

Bosses at Royal Mail (RM) said Pegasus, which calculates delivery routes for post workers, would make services more efficient but the CWU said planned redundancies meant postmen working longer rounds, and, therefore, not having the time to deliver all mail.

Greg Charles, branch secretary of the CWU in south west London, said: “As of yesterday there were about 2.5m to 3m remain undelivered across south London.

There is a huge backlog and we are working through it.”

He said talks between RM and the CWU were “progressing” and he was hopeful that strikes planed for south London next Wednesday, September 23, and the following Tuesday, September 29, could be averted.

He said the backlog was affecting all SW postcodes, including Wandsworth, Lambeth, Fulham, Merton and Richmond.

He added the CWU had been successful in postponing the implementation of Pegasus in the Putney office - which was due to start using the system on Monday, September 14, but the system was due to start in the Battersea office, one of the main sorting offices for south west London, on Monday, September 28.

An RM spokeswoman said it was continuing with moderniastion but the CWU is considering balloting members over a national strike.

She said post in London would be "delayed for several days, two or three on average".

In response RM managing director, Mark Higson, said: ”The ballot further underlines the CWU’s determination to renege on the existing 2007 agreement on pay and modernisation which the union’s leadership signed in the presence of the TUC.

It beggars belief that CWU chief Dave Ward says today that the disruption caused by the CWU strike is hurting customers yet at the same time calls a national strike ballot to step up the damage they are already inflicting on customers big and small.”

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