by Katie Lamborn

Discarded undelivered envelopes and parcel labels have been found in bins near to the entrance of a temporary mail sorting office.

The discovery comes as dozens of protesters picketed an emergency mail sorting centre in Dartford today.

They are angry at Royal Mail using casual workers to counter the postal strikes.

Protestors this morning showed our reporter a couple of discarded envelopes in bins near to the entrance of the warehouse.

Right to Work campaigner Sian Ruddick says: “We’ve found tags from bags of mail that have been brought in to the centre here officially now called the ‘Dartford Division’.

Audio: Right to Work campaigner Sian Ruddick was at the protest this morning.

“I’m concerned that actually this is the first of what we are going to see across the public sector - that increasingly employers are becoming more aggressive in order to make cuts and to reduce services.

"That’s why I think it’s important for people from other industries, for people like myself to get involved and build solidarity with the postal workers to make sure they win this dispute.”

Activists and sympathisers met for about an hour at Royal Mail’s giant warehouse, in Sandpit Road, Dartford, in a bid to see the “scab” facility closed down.

Royal Mail says temporary staff at the 160,000 sq ft warehouse are being used to clear mail backlogs caused by industrial action in London and the South East.

But supporters of campaign group Right to Work, which organised the rally, argue otherwise. They say the 200 agency staff employed there are being used as strike breakers to fill the gap left by postal worker walk-outs.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "The up to 30,000 directly engaged, fully vetted temporary workers being hired by Royal Mail to help us clear any mail delayed by strikes and help with Christmas volumes are entirely in line with all employment law.

"In addition we normally use agency staff throughout the year to help cover sick and holiday absence, fluctuations in volumes and higher volumes at Christmas and these agency workers are absolutely not hired to do the work of postal workers when they are on strike."