Royal Mail to hire 16,000 temporary workers to cover busiest time

The staff will help out during the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas periods.

Extra staff are needed during busier periods. including Christmas (Joe Giddens/PA) (PA Archive)

Royal Mail is hiring 16,000 temporary workers as part of its plans to cover the busy Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas periods.

The jobs include 8,000 mail centre sorting roles in England, 1,200 in Scotland, 500 roles Wales and 500 in Northern Ireland.

Five new temporary parcel sorting centres and 6,800 extra trucks and vans will be added to the company’s fleet over the festive period.

The temporary workers will help Royal Mail’s 110,000 posties sort the mail, as well as the increasing number of online shopping parcels the company expects to process over the festive period.

The temporary positions will be located in 37 mail centres across the country, with a variety of shifts available.

Contracts will run from late October to early January 2024.

Parcelforce Worldwide is also recruiting additional drivers and indoor workers.

The roles offer competitive pay rates and the opportunity for longer-term work.

Christmas is Royal Mail’s busiest period, with around double the normal number of parcels and stamped letters processed.

A total 176,500sq m of extra temporary space has been created across five seasonal parcel sort centres located in Atherstone, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Daventry, and Greenford in London.

Grant McPherson, chief operating officer at Royal Mail, said: “We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas for our customers. It’s our busiest time of the year and we know how important it is for people that we deliver letters and parcels on time.

“By planning ahead and hiring more people, vans and trucks, we are well prepared to handle the expected increased festive mail and parcels and deliver the high standards of service our customers expect from Royal Mail.”