Around 50 staff members at the Royal Mail in Grays were standing outside the sorting office this morning after their colleague was sacked for what they believed was an "unfair dismissal."

The action took place at 6:15am and lasted until 12:30pm.

Postal workers said that they wanted to return to work but their only request was that their colleague, who has been working at the Royal Mail for 32 years, was reinstated.

One worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “As far as we are concerned, he has been unfairly dismissed.

"Postal workers don’t take standing out here lightly; nobody wants to lose pay and nobody wants to let down the customers.

"We should all be pulling in the same direction.”

Another worker, who also wished not to be named, said: “This is about standing together, united. This man has got to survive.”

They eventually went back to work after a representative for the Communication Workers' Union spoke with management at the Grays branch and they decided to put the employee through a formal disciplinary hearing.

The representative said: "The man is back at work and a disciplinary hearing will be happening on Tuesday."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Royal Mail is disappointed that unballoted industrial action is taking place this morning, Thursday August 10, at Grays delivery office. 

"This serves customers in the RM16, RM17,RM18, RM19 and RM20.

"We apologise to customers in the area for any disruption to mail deliveries and we are doing all we can to minimise this disruption.

"The customer service point is open for customers to collect any mail for which we’ve left a “Something for you” card.

“Royal Mail is committed to the process of trying to resolve the concerns of postal workers based in Grays by following the national jointly agreed framework with the Communication Workers Union (CWU).”

They also said that any mail that was not delivered today will be done so tomorrow.

This is the second strike held by postal workers at the Royal Mail sorting office in Grays in six weeks.