Postmen across Donegal are up in arms after An Post cancelled the traditional Christmas Eve delivery.
More than 100 postmen normally receive their Christmas ‘boxes’ or ‘tips’ on the last day before Christmas from customers from Ballyshannon to Buncrana.
But there will be no traditional last-minute Christmas Eve delivery of cards and letters this year because it falls on a Saturday.
The last Christmas cards have to be sent by standard post by December 19th and will be delivered on Friday, December 23rd.
However postmen aren’t happy with the move and claim it will also deprive them of a day’s work.
“A lot of postmen aren’t happy. Christmas Eve is always the day when people keep an eye out for the postman to give them a tip for the year.
“Chances are that won’t happen now this year because we are not working on Christmas Eve.
“Working on a Saturday is always good overtime as well because it is time and a half for the first four hours worked and double time after that.
“I can remember working plenty of Saturdays before on Christmas Eve.
“We are lucky that we have got jobs but we always depended on this bit of work at Christmas for the few extra euro,” said one postman.
A spokesman for An Post told Doneagldaily.com said the decision not to work on a Saturday was not because of cutbacks but because of the date on which Christmas Eve fell.
“It is purely because Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday and it has nothing to do with money or cutbacks.
“We feel the vast majority of letters and parcels will have been sent and processed by this stage and we do not think there will be a need for the postmen to work on Christmas Eve – it being a Saturday as well,” he said.
The volume of letters and parcels being sent around Ireland will TRIPLE on a daily basis through December.
The An Post spokesman added that normally up to two and a half million items are in circulation each day but this will increase to more than six million each day for December.
“I have just spoken to somebody in the central sorting office and they have told me that the amount of parcels due to the increase in on-line shopping is incredible,” he added.
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