Experiences of working for Royal Mail
Below you can listen to ten fascinating stories of members of the Sikh, Hindu and Muslim Associations. They each talk about their experiences and feelings of working for Royal Mail. Find out about the different jobs they do and how things have changed over the years.
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"yeah I like to work here because I've got a lot of friends, all my brothers working here, big family, like a family..."
Amritlal Nakum talks of how he feels about working in Mount Pleasant. |
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"I started as a postman and then I progressed...and then I picked up a Manager job..."
Arvind Patel talks of the different jobs he has done in his 32 years of working for Royal Mail. |
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"its a very nice place, good atmosphere and I'm very proud to work for the Royal Mail..."
Dalvinder Singh talks of the different jobs he has done since starting for Royal Mail in 1990. |
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"I had a couple of relatives and friends working in Royal
Mail and I was approached by them that they required some people to do
the job...and there may be an opportunity for me to promote myself to
something and it would be a steady job..."
Imtiyaz Chawan talks of when he started for Royal Mail in 1996 and what he does in his job as a postman driver now. |
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"there was opportunities to do overtime and financially be kind of stable so I joined Royal Mail..."
Jess Dhanjal talks of his work for Royal Mail since 1987 and his progression to Late Shift Manager. |
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"I just try to make sure everything goes through proper way, proper channel..."Waseem Akhtar Janjua talks of his work at Royal Mail since 1996 and his daily duties. |
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"my particular job is to, I allocate jobs to people for the forthcoming week..."Kuldeep Singh talks of his work at Royal Mail since 1988 and his present duties in the Book Room. |
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"I was delivering mail to a Army Major's home and outside there were a few £5 notes scattered..."Sarfaraz Khan talks of his work for Royal Mail first as a postman on delivery and then in Mount Pleasant. |
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"I worked on the TPO for about 6 or 7 years. I think I was the first non-white person to work on the Great West TPO..."Ravinderits Mann talks about the variety of jobs he has done in Royal Mail since 1978 and the duties of his present job. |
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"I love my job, I really enjoy my job..."Zahid Safdar talks of how he followed in his father's footsteps by working for Royal Mail and what his duties are in his present role as Collections Support Manager. |
Glossary of terms
Book Room = Administration Department
FS = Foreign Section
OPG = Operational Postal Grade (postman)
PHG = Postman Higher Grade
TPO = Traveling Post Office (train carriage for sorting mail on route)
Yorkies = Trolleys for moving mail
Raghbir Singh Sidhu's story
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Raghbir Singh Sidhu, in his own words, tells of his experiences of working for Royal Mail:
"My name is Raghbir Singh Sidhu and I was born
in Malaya at Salk South (near Kuala Lampur). I was 5 years old when my
parents returned to India for good and then we immigrated to UK in
January 1969. My friends recommended Mount Pleasant Inland Section to
me because of its good working conditions, plenty of overtime and the
indoor nature of the work. I applied to the GPO in April 1969 and I did
my training in Belgrave Training Centre, Kings Cross (London).
I joined Mount Pleasant (MP) in November 1969. In those days MP
was the biggest sorting office in the whole world and the whole
country’s mail had to pass through MP Inland Section. All incoming
international mail also first used to come to MP Inland Section. At the
time there was no outside delivery from this office and the whole work
was manual, there were no facing machines or other mechanisms. My daily
routine was to start by facing letters, putting them into trolleys and
then moving these letter trolleys to the sorting bays. Then I would
sort the letters into the right pigeon holes on the sorting bays and
tie various destinations into separate bundles. Then I would label the
packs with the correct destination (town or village or city) and date
and time the labels. I also sorted parcels of various sizes into sacks
that hung on metal frames.
Later I was promoted to Postman Higher Grade and I got training for the job in MP. The job involved collecting mail from pigeon holes or frames, tying and labelling them to the right destinations, and despatching in bags to the various destinations. I also had to receive and open incoming mail bags to sort. I was also trained to handle registered mail (including valuables) and had to handle lost items enquiries.
That was daily routine. There were various shift work patterns; one had to apply for different shifts. Allocation was given on a seniority basis. Generally conditions were good but in the basement there was lot of paper dust from the mail. After years of continuous work in those dusty conditions my health got affected. In the vicinity of Mount Pleasant I could not stop coughing but as soon as I went outside the building I was alright. Hence my sick notes were on the increase and management warned me to improve my attendance. Finally my GP advised me to leave the job, because he said it was the conditions in the office that were affecting me so I left in August 1978. My health improved very quickly when I left GPO.
I recently met a few old MP friends and colleagues, some of them are still working there. Now there are social clubs, religious prayer rooms allotted to different religious followers and people can celebrate their famous festivals. The Sikhs in MP celebrate Guru Nanak’s birthday and Vaisakhi every year where they serve free food and drink to all co-workers. The Sikh prayer room was not achieved without the strong and dedicated efforts of all (150 members) of the MP Sikh Association. Some played an admirable role in establishing the Sikh Association under the leadership of Mr Harkrishan Singh Puneet."
