The crippling effect of an illegal strike by postal workers is easing, the Post Office said on Tuesday, adding that it expects to clear the remainder of the backlog in undelivered mail “within a few working days”.

The Post Office says the strike at its two main mail-sorting centres in Gauteng, has cost it R97m in lost revenue and it’s had to invest R6m paying employees overtime.

“The organisation has been working tirelessly to reduce the mail backlog and to restore services to customers since the beginning of the strike,” says Post Office CEO Christopher Hlekane in a statement. “This resulted from contingency plans, which involves employees and volunteers working around the clock.”

Capacity at the Tshwane Mail Centre in Pretoria has reached normal levels, the Post Office says. Operations at the Witspos Mail Centre have also “improved significantly” as a result of replacement workers being hired and people working extended shifts. As a result, 6m processed mail items were dispatched from Witspos on Monday.

According to the Post Office, the strike started because of “misinformation by some employees who wanted to extort money from unsuspecting employees”.

“Essentially, the alleged claim was for a payout in the region of billions and has been found to be incorrect and baseless. It is important to highlight that the Post Office does not owe employees any money.”

Hlekane says the employee responsible for leading the “misinformation and fraudulent campaign” has been arrested.

The Post Office has initiated procedures to dismiss the striking postal workers. “This step became unavoidable after the striking workers failed to heed ultimatums in respect of presenting themselves for work by 8am on 13 March.” — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media