24 July 2007 - Royal Mail has won an appeal against two postmen who last year won an unfair dismissal claim after they had been sacked for not delivering junk mail on the day it was supposed to be delivered.
The two postal workers were dismissed after 35 undelivered letters from the finance company Capital One were found at a delivery office in Alford, Aberdeenshire. But an employment tribunal last year ruled that the dismissal was unfair and that the postmen should be re-employed.
The chair of the 2006 tribunal ruled that the Capital One letters were junk mail and that it is "common knowledge that the vast majority of it is not even opened by customers or is destroyed immediately after it is opened." He added that "a reasonable employer would have regard to the clear distinction between first and second-class stamped mail and unsolicited junk mail."
The tribunal also found it was clear that the advertisements would have been delivered the following day and that it was inconceivable any intended recipients would complain about the delay.
However, on Monday an appeals tribunal came to the conclusion that Capital One was entitled to the service it paid for. The tribunal judge, Lady Anne Smith, said: "If the attitude of the householder towards the mail they received was a factor, then the same argument might extend to items like bills and catalogues."