Royal Mail employees across Oxfordshire have returned to work hailing yesterday’s 24-hour strike a success.

But unionised employees have promised to fight on in a dispute over pay and working conditions with more disruption to come.

Almost 1,000 workers in the county walked out as part of a national strike, with another planned at delivery offices in Oxford next Saturday.

Paul Garraway, Oxfordshire branch secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, said: “The mood on Friday was fantastic.

“The turnout on the picket lines was great and we had lots of visitors coming up to support us and handing us food.

“The delivery offices in Oxford will go on strike on Saturday and I expect the same performance from my branch, with another great turn out. People have had enough.”

Talking about the backlog of undelivered items that had piled up, Mr Garraway said: “It will be a busy day every day this week, but I can’t foresee Royal Mail letting anyone have overtime so they’ll be using the casuals again.

“Instead of your usual postman — and the quality and standards they bring — you’ll get a guy with a map on a different round each day.

“I don’t think they will catch up with the backlog, I can’t see how they are going to now it’s gone national.”

He added: “We want to bring this to a head, but Royal Mail seems intent on dragging it out into January.

“We all want to do our job properly and we want to be able to provide the service we used to be able to provide.”