THE Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has started an investigation into Royal Mail after it emerged that one employee in every five suffered an accident at work last year, The Times has learnt.

Of the 36,000 injuries recorded, 7,200 were classed as so substantial that they resulted in workers taking at least three days off to recover.

It has also emerged that Royal Mail has recorded 20,000 road traffic accidents last year involving its postal vehicles.

The news of the safety investigation throws the spotlight again on the management of Royal Mail after a series of controversies over poor delivery of letters and alleged credit card fraud involving some postal workers. Last month Royal Mail missed all of its 15 service delivery targets and is expected to be fined more than £80 million by the industry regulator Ofcom.

The work-related accidents cost the postal group £16 million a year. The safety inquiry is one of the biggest initiatives that the Government’s safety watchdog has mounted.

The accident rate means there is one incident for every five of Royal Mail’s 180,000 employees although the organisation emphasises that not all of the accidents result in serious injury.

The HSE has undertaken only two big initiatives with large organisations before, at BT and the NHS. A spokeswoman said: “We have started this initiative to try to reduce the level of accidents. There is no specific target yet as it is early days but the HSE will work with the other parties to see where safety can be improved.”

Dave Joyce, a safety officer with the Communication Workers Union, said that the safety record was an “embarrassment to the Government” and that Royal Mail was aware of the union’s “serious concerns regarding the current unacceptable level of accidents and fatalities that occur each year both in the workplace and on the road”.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said it was trying to improve its safety record and that accident numbers had been reduced over the past couple of years. In the financial year 2001-02 there were 43,530 accidents; in 2002-03 there were 40,530; and in the last financial year there were 35,948. The number of serious injury accidents were 9,327, 9,185, and 7,273 respectively.

He said: “We are very focused on health and safety and are determined to reduce the number of accidents. We are introducing team meetings every week and safety will always be on the agenda.”

Royal Mail said about half of the accidents were “slips, trips and falls” and about a quarter occurred as a result of carrying heavy mailbags.

The organisation said that while 20,000 road traffic accidents a year sounded a lot, its 40,000 vehicles covered more than 1.6 million miles a day and that many of the incidents were bumps and scrapes which often occurred in Royal Mail car parks rather than on the road. Its drivers are currently receiving extra tuition to improve their skills.

Mr Joyce also gave warning that safety records could worsen if postal employees were forced to do more work to push through the change towards a single mail delivery.

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