As a 48-hour postal strike gets underway, Manpower has told Recruiter that it remains committed to carrying out and providing checks on the temporary workers it supplies to the Royal Mail.

A Daily Mail report yesterday claimed that Royal Mail temporary workers were being hired on the minimum wage, while some had criminal records and were given only ‘cursory’ interviews.

Both Manpower and Reed have contracts to supply the Royal Mail with temporary workers.

A Manpower spokesperson told Recruiter: “We work closely with Royal Mail to ensure that all our staff comply with industry regulations and the specific requirements outlined by our client to safeguard anyone using Royal Mail’s services. 

“We consider our responsibility to carry out and provide evidence of these checks to be of the utmost importance and we will continue to work with our client to deliver this high standard of service.”

Recruiter contacted Reed but had not heard back at time of press.

Elsewhere, a spokesperson for mail carriers Hermes and UK Mail told Recruiter that they had not increased their use of temporary workers but had witnessed an increase in business due to the industrial action.

“At UK Mail, we have experienced an increase of between 10% and 20% in the number of mail enquiries since the onset of the industrial action by the CWU. However, it is difficult to quantify due to the expected general boost in activity symptomatic of this time of year and recent contract wins.

“Our approach throughout all previous strike activity has been ‘business as usual’ with us continuing to deliver mail into all Royal Mail centres around the UK. We hope that the dispute is resolved as quickly as possible for the sake of our customers and mail users as a whole.

“Hermes has reported a significant increase in registrations, orders and deliveries as a result of the latest postal strikes and forthcoming industrial action. New registrations to the service have risen by 10% week-on-week, with the number of orders increasing by 25% in the last week.”