FURTHER delays to postal deliveries today are feared after a weekend walk-out by 70 Royal Mail staff.

Lorry drivers based at the Swindon sorting depot were due to return to work at 4am today after a 48-hour strike.

But Communication Workers Union branch secretary Chris Rye said they would walk out again tomorrow unless national negotiations resolved problems over changing shift patterns.

The 24-hour strike is due to start at 4am tomorrow, so that it is complete by the time the union holds a national ballot on mass industrial action.

Mr Rye claimed national agreements were being broken because drivers’ duties were being changed without negotiation.

He said: “This isn’t about so-called Spanish practices you’ve read about in the Daily Mail. Managers are ignoring our rights to negotiate our duties and duty structure. We’re talking about our lives here, and not just one or two days of mail being disrupted. It’s our families’ lives and our earning potential, and businesses should not be able to get away with changing conditions and practices like this.”

Royal Mail was unavailable for comment last night.