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News Release Ref – MT STRICTLY EMBARGOED TO 00:01 18 JULY ROYAL MAIL & CWU ASK CUSTOMERS WITH DOGS TO HELP WITH STAFF SAFETY DURING SUMMER SCHOOL HOLIDAYS * Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union are appealing to dog owners to work with us to help keep animals under control when the postman calls during the school holidays. * The number of attacks usually peaks during the school holidays. * 90,000 ‘posting pegs’ have been issued by the company; these are devices used to put letters through the letterbox and protect the fingers of postmen and women Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are appealing to dog owners to work with us to help keep animals under control during the school holidays this summer when postmen and women call to deliver mail. While the number of attacks has fallen by 14 per cent nationally since 2010, it still remains unacceptably high. Over 3,100 attacks took place between April 2011 to April 2012. Postmen and women face increased danger during school holidays when parents and children are at home with dogs sometimes allowed unsupervised in the garden or out onto the streets without restraints. These attacks usually increase during the prolonged summer school holidays. Royal Mail and the CWU are asking customers to keep their pets under control and are issuing top tips in an attempt to reduce the number of dog attacks. Royal Mail and the CWU are working together to raise awareness of the reality of dog attacks through targeted campaigns and the CWU led Bite Back campaign. However, the number of attacks remains unacceptably high. Our main aim is to always prevent attacks. If we feel that there is a risk from a dog, or any other animal, at an individual address, we are committed to working with the customer to agree simple steps to ensure we can deliver the mail safely. Measures to improve the safety of our people * More than £100,000 has been spent on awareness campaigns and equipment to help our postmen and women reduce the risk of injury. *In the autumn, we will be trialling customer leaflets in raising customer awareness to the risks of dog attacks in Central Reading, Huddersfield, Lymington, Morpeth, North Tyneside and Truro. Ian Stockdale, Head of Health and Safety Management for Royal Mail said: “We would like to express our thanks to our customers for working with us to help reduce the number of attacks by 14 per cent since 2010, now we want to reduce this number further as there are still too many attacks taking place. “Our first priority as an employer is to ensure the welfare and safety of our people who provide a valuable service to our customers and we regularly provide advice to our people to help minimise the risk of an attack and have spent over £100,000 on awareness campaigns and equipment to help reduce the risk of injury. However, even just being threatened by an unrestrained pet is a frightening situation for our delivery staff and we would appeal to owners to keep their pets under control, especially if they know their pets have a territorial nature.” Dave Joyce, CWU National Health and Safety Officer said: “There are so many things that dog owners can do to reduce the likelihood of an attack taking place so we strongly urge all dog owners to look at these top tips. Prevention is always better than the cure when it comes to dog attacks so we hope that all dog owners will take a moment to check where their pet is, especially over the summer holidays when attacks increase.” Ends Issued by Source: Royal Mail / CWU |
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