Increased manual processing work causes concern in Parcel land
The new parcel machines at Melbourne and Sydney Parcel Facilities (MPF and SPF) are suffering teething problems, causing a large number of parcels to be manually sorted. The CWU National Office has asked Australia Post for a risk assessment on the new manual processing work occurring at MPF and SPF amid concerns about the safety of the work.
At this stage, the principal concern of the union is the safety of its members. Hence we have formally asked Australia Post how long it expects the increased manual processing to continue, what rotations and equipment are in place to ensure workers’ safety, has a risk assessment been done and, if not, why not and when will it be done?
We appreciate Australia Post has a schedule to meet if it wants the rest of the new equipment installed by next Xmas. But, in the current circumstances, it is hard to justify removing the old parcel equipment and exposing workers to greater risk with increased manual sorting until the new equipment is operating as expected.
Postscript – Commonsense prevails, for now. Post has agreed not to remove the old machines at MPF for another 2 weeks until the new equipment is operating a lot better. The old equipment has already been removed at the SPF.
