Discarding mail is a serious failure of duty, and we thank Messrs Cheng Yen Chuan, Lau Kim Boo and Edwin Pang for their letters (Complaints of postman should be looked into; Don't treat issue of dumped mail lightly, and Dismissal not stiff enough punishment for postman, respectively, all published on Feb 13).

We investigated the matter as soon as it was brought to our attention and, in line with SingPost's discipline directive, dismissed the postman after he admitted to throwing away returned letters and direct mail.

We apologise, especially to the residents of the estate, for the service lapse. SingPost is committed to the highest ethical standards and to upholding the public's trust.

We have taken immediate steps to highlight the incident to all our delivery staff and remind them of the importance of following procedures.

We will be holding refresher training for all our staff from this coming week and will take place over the next two months.

The course will cover key procedures and disciplinary measures.

SingPost has been maintaining the postal delivery workforce, even as volumes have been declining.

We have 1,200 full-time postmen and neighbourhood postmen, who work part-time.

Of these, 70 are quality control officers who conduct regular and spot checks on mail delivery. We are looking to increase this number.

Our postman routes are planned and reviewed regularly for efficiency, and take into consideration each postman's performance.

Volume and routing data are analysed, among other factors. We also plan routes to ensure our postmen have sufficient time to complete their daily deliveries without compromising health and safety.

The postman in this case was responsible for about 2,300 units over two condominiums.

This distribution and his working hours are in line with the average for our full-time postmen.

Our records show he had not raised any concerns about his work environment or health issues. On the few occasions he had volunteered to work overtime, he was paid for it.

Recognising the demanding nature of the postman's job, we have incentives for good performance and contributions to the team.

We provide support to our postmen and they are encouraged to raise any issues with their team leaders. We have also implemented a skip-level mechanism for postmen to escalate concerns to management.

We assure the public that every effort is being made to ensure this incident does not reoccur.

Tan Tien Po

Senior Vice-President, Domestic Mail

SingPost