Royal Mail recruiting 16,000 staff for festive rush

Royal Mail says it is "pulling out all the stops" to deliver Christmas mail on time

Thousands of short-term jobs are being created to help Royal Mail deal with a surge in demand over the Christmas period.

Temporary sorting offices are being set up at five locations, including Daventry, Northampton and Milton Keynes.

Royal Mail said the roles would be offered with "competitive pay rates and the opportunity for longer-term work".

Thousands of additional vans and trucks will be added to the company's fleet.

The contracts for the new roles will run from the end of October to early January, to cover Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November - as well as the Christmas period, Royal Mail said.

Posts will be based in 38 mail centres across the country, and include 8,000 mail centre sorting roles in England and 2,200 in the rest of the UK.

The additional staff will help the company deal with the increasing number of online shopping parcels the company expects to handle during the Christmas holiday, when the number of letters and parcels being processed doubles.

Parcelforce Worldwide is also recruiting additional drivers and indoor workers.

A total of 176,500 sq m (211,092 sq yd) of extra temporary space will be created across five seasonal parcel sorting centres in Daventry, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Atherstone in Warwickshire and Greenford in London, the company said.

Temporary sorting offices are being set up in Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and London

Grant McPherson, chief operating officer at Royal Mail, said: "We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas for our customers. It's our busiest time of the year and we know how important it is for people that we deliver letters and parcels on time.

"By planning ahead and hiring more people, vans and trucks, we are well prepared to handle the expected increased festive mail and parcels and deliver the high standards of service our customers expect from Royal Mail."

Last year's Christmas postal service was disrupted by strike action called by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) in a dispute over pay and conditions.