ROYAL Mail is plagued by the “disease” of thousands of new recruits leaving after a year or less in the job, postal workers warned today.

Delegates at the Communications Workers Union (CWU) conference voted in favour of a proposal for the union to meet with postal bosses to “re-energise and strengthen” new entrants’ terms of employment and workplace coaching agreements.

The workers argue that precarious employment and poor pay leads to staff, many of whom are young mothers, leaving in droves.

CWU London divisional rep Mark Palfrey said: “Nearly 8,000 people who joined the company in early 2017 had left within 12 months and most of them were voluntary leavers.

“What was particularly damning was the fact that over 490 of these people left within the first three months.

“The new entrants, and the way they’re dealt with, has become not a good story.

“The stats for London are very damning indeed – 502 people come in [and], of this number, we have lost 444 people within a year, with 292 of these voluntarily leaving.

“This is costing the business in excess of £1,250 per person. The company has spent £10 million on bringing people in the company just to lose them.

“This is a disease across our offices.”

Fellow delegate Dave Sievers seconded the motion, adding: “The amount of new entrants I’ve had on the phone in tears, in complete shock, and the lack of care the employer puts on them – it’s relentless pressure on an individual.

“You’ve got bullying practices towards workers. There’s a real lack of compassion that how these workers have just walked into a job, haven’t done the right training, are moved from office to office.

“People ring me up, asking: ‘How am I going to pick up my kids from school?’

“They bear the brunt of the most exploitative practices in our industry and managers don’t even attempt to adhere to workplace culture agreements with them.

CWU national executive member Mark Walsh called the high staff turnover “shocking” and added: “Royal Mail, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

“We will push the company every inch of the way on this issue,” he vowed.