Letter an insult to postmen

Re: The letter on June 12 regarding postal workers and their alleged greed.

As a postman's wife even I do not know enough about the issues to make a valid judgement as to whether a strike is appropriate, but I would like to point out the following; my husband, who has been a postman for five years, earns £15,600 per year gross - the equivalent to a take home pay of £261.00 per week.

To earn this he starts work at 4.30am five days per week. He has to sort the mail and then deliver it, his finish time is when all the mail on his round is delivered, which can be anything up to a 10 hour day.

The impact on his family and social life due to this early start can only be understood by those of us married to postmen. We have one full weekend together as a family every six weeks, and sometimes not that if there are shortages.

He obtained this role not through nepotism but by going to the local job centre, after having an interview and being prepared to take the job on a temporary post until a permanent position arose. So the opportunity is there for an ordinary person if you are prepared to take it.

I find the tone of the letter both uninformed and quite frankly insulting to these workers who often, in the course of their work, do a public service, especially to those members of the public who live in rural areas.

No the job does not require great intellect but then neither does the job of a window cleaner. Having said that I would be lost without my window cleaner who earns on average £18 per hour gross.

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