Sutton's postal service is suffering from such a dire recruitment crisis it will hardly be affected by the 30,000 proposed job losses over the next 18 months.

The borough sees the fifth highest turnover of the Royal Mail delivery service but struggles to recruit employees. The situation has even become so serious, employees have had to be transferred from inner London boroughs.

But Communication Workers' Union (CWU) branch secretary for Sutton and Croydon Gary Kirkwood told the Guardian a strike could still be on the cards over the proposed job losses.

He said: "There are talks going on now and the possibility of industrial action is still on a knife-edge."

Mr Kirkwood has stressed strike action is unlikely to affect delivery of Christmas post but says on-going recruitment problems are exacerbated by poor rates of pay, unsociable hours, hard work and more tempting jobs.

He said: "There are a lot of jobs available in Sutton, so if people can get paid the same and not have to get up at 4am then they will go for those positions. It's a very physically demanding job and some people don't last longer than a week.

"They get up really early, six days a week and go out like packed mules. Their basic pay with outer London waiting is £278.11 per week.

"In the past few months, employees from the Royal Mail delivery service in inner London have even had to be transferred to Sutton."

He added: "The arguments behind industrial action are complicated but concern issues surrounding conditions and pay. Consignia the Post Office's new name recently removed a job security agreement preventing compulsory redundancies without talking to the unions."

Meanwhile, as the Christmas rush begins, a Sutton delivery worker said: "We have heard about it but there has been no indication about any action. The post will not be affected as we will always endeavour to deliver mail to Sutton."

A spokesman for Consignia, which has not released breakdowns of redundancies in specific areas yet, said: "The CWU is committed to no disruption of Christmas post. Our employees have already been briefed this could mean one in 10 jobs going in some areas, mostly administrative and managerial grades."

The company, which believes electronic mail may be part of the reason for its dramatic loss in profits, says voluntary redundancy packages would be the next option.

December 14, 2001 15:30