AN army of 500 posties has been enlisted in Liverpool by the Royal Mail's biggest rival - and will today begin doorstep deliveries in the city.

TNT Post, the UK’s second largest private postal operator, announced the move which was described by Mayor Joe Anderson as another sign that Liverpool was on the up and "open for business". 

But the union representing Britain's 200,000 postal and telecoms workers slammed TNT's arrival in the city, calling the move “deeply worrying”. It also accused the company of employing people on zero hours contracts and being selective about where and when it delivered mail. 

Liverpool is only the third city in the UK to be part of TNT's doorstep invasion plan. With Manchester and London it takes the number of people hired to 3,000 in under two years. It says it plans to create 20,000 jobs in five years. 

TNT says it chose Liverpool because of the positive approach the city had in welcoming inward investment and the help it gave in targeting the jobs at the hard to reach youth and long term unemployed. 

Mayor Joe said: “Together with our partners, we worked really hard with them to help target and recruit people with the right skills. I keep saying that Liverpool is open for business, and we are now having real success in attracting high quality firms delivering substantial numbers of jobs.” 

Around 170 of the candidates underwent a pre-employment training course developed in conjunction with Liverpool City Council to sort the most suitable people for the postie posts. It claims the flexibility of the roles has made them particularly appealing for women returning to work, second jobbers, those balancing childcare commitments and school/college leavers. 

The new service will be pedal powered, with all of the 500 new recruits using bikes. lt will operate alongside the traditional Royal Mail service, every other day, Monday to Saturday. 

'Selective'

Nick Wells, CEO TNT Post said that the company had a commitment to developing its employees' careers. “We are delighted to have gone live in Liverpool,” he added. “It’s a great city and we welcome the support received from the local public sector bodies in helping us target these jobs at people who may have found it hard to get back into the work place.” 

However, Communication Workers Union Deputy General Secretary Dave Ward said: "TNT Post's arrival in Liverpool is deeply worrying. Residents have come to expect a regular, reliable service from Royal Mail but will now face competitors who are selective about when and where they deliver mail. 

There are  2,238 CWU members in Liverpool. and Ward renewed calls for Ofcom to apply the universal service obligation, which sees a six-day-a-week service. He added: " There is no obligation for the company to meet the broader needs of customers, so what we were are seeing in other parts of the country is cost cutting at the expense of the jobs, pay and conditions of postal workers by employing staff on zero hours contracts and paying less than the living wage." 

Businesses

Asked if any of the new posties will be employed on zero-hours contracts a spokesman told Liverpool Confidential: "We will not be using agency workers. Our staff will be employed by TNT on a mixture of flexible and full-time hours contracts." 

He added that 80 per cent of the mail will be generated by businesses in the Liverpool 'L' postal districts. There won't be any TNT post boxes. Instead TNT posties will collect mail from business premises and take it for sorting and delivery. 

Will it cost more to send a letter than the cost of a first class stamp? The spokesman said: "As it is a consumer service there will be scalable charging depending on the size of the business."