Postmasters can now receive additional remuneration for handling international items, as Royal Mail services return to branches.

In January, Royal Mail confirmed to customers that a cyber incident had left Post Offices (PO) being unable to handle international mail or parcels across 11,500 branches.

A week later, although postmasters were able to accept and sell postage for letter and large letter-sized items internationally, this excluded the sending of goods internationally.

Post offices can begin to take international mail

Today, PO’s managing director of parcels and mails Neill O’Sullivan confirmed international services had resumed. “Postmasters have been the innocent victims of this faceless crime, unable to support businesses and consumers wishing to use their expertise to get parcels sent abroad,” he said. “For many small businesses, POs are an integral part of their business set-up and this has been a challenging time for them too.

“We have worked day and night in partnership with Royal Mail to reinstate all international services via our branch network.”

O’Sullivan also revealed PO was providing additional remuneration for those handling international items at branches in the form of a new fixed payment for each transaction. In addition, for all Royal Mail international labels sold in branch during February and March, PO will pay additional commission on the value of each item.

He said: “These past weeks have been difficult for postmasters who, through no fault of their own, have missed out on remuneration for providing international mail services. Postmasters are operating in a tough economic climate and this package of remuneration improvements should help rebuild their earnings from international parcels.”

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