Angard Staffing Solutions, the Royal Mail’s in-house agency, will not be recruiting seasonal staff for the Royal Mail’s mail and distribution centres this Christmas. The news, announced exclusively to Recruiter by Royal Mail, follows last year’s delays and mistakes in payment to Angard staff, as well as complaints about candidate care.

According to the Communication Workers Union (CWU), pay issues for some Angard staff were not resolved until June.

Angard Staffing Solutions was set up as an in-house agency within Royal Mail in May 2011 to provide it with temporary staff, with recruitment carried out by Reed Specialist Recruitment.  

A Royal Mail spokesperson told Recruiter: “This year, Christmas seasonal staff for our mail and distribution centres will be recruited and paid directly by Royal Mail.

“We will use Angard Staffing Solutions Ltd for some recruitment in areas where no difficulties were experienced last year, for example, in our manual data entry centres.”

The spokesperson acknowledged “delays and difficulties with the pay of some temporary employees last Christmas”, adding that Royal Mail had “apologised for this a number of times and worked hard to resolve any outstanding problems as quickly as possible”.

The Royal Mail expects to recruit 18,000 seasonal workers this Christmas, the same number as last year.

A spokesperson for CWU told Recruiter: “We’re encouraged by the move to bring recruitment back in-house. Angard provides thousands of people for Royal Mail throughout the year so they will remain in the mix, but we hope that lessons have been learnt as the Christmas rush approaches.

“Nobody wants a repeat of the mess which occurred last year with so many agency workers being either underpaid or unpaid. CWU played an active role in ensuring people received the money they were owed and it took six months to get every case completed. 

“We’ve sought assurances that this will not be repeated and the change in arrangements for 2012 certainly looks more positive.”

A Reed spokesperson told Recruiter: “Reed continues to be the provider of a number of recruitment services to Angard Staffing Solutions Ltd.”