OTTAWA, May 3 (UPI) -- Canadian postal workers are bent on eliminating delivery to rural areas based on safety concerns, officials said.
The Ottawa Citizen reported Saturday there are 843,000 roadside mailboxes in Canada, and Canada Post is spending $500 million to review the safety of each of them using criteria developed by three consulting firms.
Postal spokesman Sachin Despande said rural mail carriers have filed 1,700 health and safety complaints since 2004. In a curious twist, Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Denis Lemelin told the newspaper he thinks the situation is being overblown.
"The reaction of the employer has been disproportionate," Lemelin said. He told the newspaper the union has suggested nine steps less drastic than outright cancellation of rural delivery, but the Crown corporation isn't listening.
Current safety regulations forbid a mail carrier to leave a vehicle to deliver to a rural address, as exit and re-entry injuries were deemed to be dangerous, the report said.
