A BACKLOG of mail built up at Wallasey Sorting Office over the last four days because of industrial action was starting to be delivered on Friday as striking postal workers returned.

Around seventy workers in Wallasey's main post office walked out on Monday in a row over working practices.

They were protesting at a new system - involving fewer staff - that they claimed was being imposed on them without proper consultation.

The row was over Royal Mail's plan to reduce staffing levels while spreading the workload onto existing "walks" - post rounds.

Earlier this week one worker told the Globe: "The Royal Mail are trying to use bully boy tactics on us and we’re just not having it.

"There’s always been a lot of goodwill that goes into this job and they're essentially taking that away.

"They’re cutting seven posts but still expect the same amount of work to be done. It’s fundamentally unfair and they haven’t consulted properly."

But today the workers were back in work starting to clear the four-day backlog of post, which has mainly affected the CH44 and CH45 postcode areas.

Communications Workers Union spokesman Mark Walsh confirmed that the striking employees had now returned as negotiations with Royal Mail over the proposed new working practices had finally got underway.

He told the Globe: "We've started talking to them [Royal Mail] this morning.

"It's a shame this didn't happen at the start of all this instead of at the finish, but at least we're talking.

"It's too early to say where we'll end up, but we're happy with the way things are going so far."