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 Low-level letterboxes should be banned to prevent postal workers straining their backs or being bitten by dogs, the CWU has said.
In support of the Union’s campaign Vicky Ford MP Proposed new legislation in a Private Members Bill, just before MPs began debating a no-confidence motion in the government over Brexit, Vicky Ford said it was a "key issue for Postal Workers.”
The campaign is calling for it to be statutory that all new letterboxes to be installed should be at a height of between 70cm and 170cm.
The Communication Workers Union is campaigning for new buildings to meet EU letter box height standards.
The CWU, which represents postmen and women, said it did not expect private households or businesses to change exiting doors, but for the measurements to become a new building regulation in the UK, and to cover new house builds, replacement doors and refurbishments as well.
The union first started asked the government to raise the level of letterboxes in 1958 and, while it was agreed by the British Standards Agency, it was never enshrined into building standards law neither was it transposed into UK law when the EU Standard was issued in 2000.
 A similar campaign by its sister union in Ireland saw low-level letterboxes banned in 2001. Other EU states have similar statutory rules e.g. Belgium, Portugal, Rep of Ireland and the CWU believes "the time has come" to replicate this in the UK.
There were 16,800 back-related spells of absence in the Royal Mail last year involving injured Postmen and Women.
There are over 95,000 postmen and women working out on the streets for Royal Mail. They deliver to 30 million address, they serve each of our communities six days a week, every week of the year, and with 300,000 new homes being built annually the problem is growing said CWU National Health and Safety Officer Dave Joyce who heads up the Union’s new Low Level Letter Box Campaign which he launched in 2018.
"This bill simply wants to stop developers from building swathes of homes each with a letterbox placed near to the ground and I hope that this will be a moment of unity in British politics.
The Union is now lobbying Housing Minister Kit Malthouse to encompass the Letterbox standard in the government’s building regulations review later this year” said Dave Joyce.
Dave ahs issued a letter to all CWU branches (LTB098/19) which can be downloaded from the E-Library Database
Source: CWU / Dave Joyce
See Also: CWU Takes The Low Level Letter Boxes Ban Campaign To TV And Radio Media
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