Eleven postal workers have taken voluntary redundancy in the last six months as a result on the scrapping of the mail plane.

But chairman of the Isle of Manc Post Office Stu Peters told the House of Keys that there had been no compulsory redundancies during the time.

He was responding to questions from Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse.

Post travelling to the island has arrived by sea rather than the air since mid October after Royal Mail said the mail plane was no longer commercially viable.

Mr Peters told MHKs: ‘In last six months, IoM Post Office has not undertaken any compulsory redundancies, although 11 employees who have chosen to take voluntary redundancies. ‘

He said the redundancies were primarily the result of the mail plane being stopped by Royal Mail and as far as he was aware, there were no plans for further redundancies at the moment.

Mr Peters said the average payment made to the 11 employers who chose redundancy was £17,147.

He said the redundancy process started in October last year.

‘Employees have chosen to taken voluntary redundancy, seven have chosen suitable alternative roles and two have been offered suitable alternative roles pending their agreement,’ he told MHKs.

Mr Moorhouse asked how many staff has been recruited over the same period. He said: ‘To the outside it looks slightly complex where people are being made redundant ands other people are being recruited at the same time.’

The chairman replied: ‘Since October 2023, two external recruits have been appointed. Our recruitment needs are continually under review and subject to change. Currently we have two full-time vacancies open for applications. ‘

‘The Post Office is going through a period of change, and therefore duties and the way that we do things change on a fairly regular basis and the company has to be able to reflect that. That’s exactly what’s happened here.’

In a separate question, Mr Moorhouse asked what guarantees are in place with regard to the delivery time of first class mail. 

The scrapping of airmail has meant an end to automatic next day delivery for standard post between the island and the UK. Mr Peters replied: ‘Standard mail is not a guaranteed delivery service either to the Isle of Man or UK addresses. Delivery of mail either to or from the Isle of Man can be expected within two to three days, depending on the time and location of posting.

‘A guaranteed next day delivery service is available from all sub-post offices and for UK addresses until 3pm from postal headquarters. 

‘One of the problems has been that post boxes are often emptied in the morning now rather than last thing at night and that sometimes causes a delay in post getting through.’