Mr Annies was disciplined after telling people on his post round about the existence of Royal Mail's opt-out scheme for unaddressed mail, the Door-to-Door Opt-Out. The leaflet he delivered on his round read:

As you will have certainly already noticed, your postman is not only delivering your mail; he/she also has to deliver some (anonymous) advertising material called door-to-door items.

For the near future, Royal Mail plans to increase your advertising mail. This will mean a lot more unwanted post in your letterbox. You may be interested in reducing your unwanted advertising mail and reduce paper usage in order to help save the environment.

If you complete the slip below and send it to the Royal Mail delivery office, you should not get any of the above mentioned unwanted advertising.

Initiative

Mr Annies gave a full explanation of his actions to a disciplinary hearing held at his Barry delivery office on 1 September. On Tuesday his employer a statement released by Royal Mail confirmed that "Mr Annies still works for Royal Mail". However, it later came to light that Mr Annies will not be delivering mail anymore and has been offered an indoors job instead.

Today Mr Annies told the BBC: "I'm not particularly happy about what's been offered and that is why I'm considering my position. I have a few options open to me - either to appeal against the package which has been offered or to accept it.

"I was asked to keep everything confidential and I'm not going to say anything more until I come to my decision. I have seen an employment lawyer and will have further discussions with him tomorrow. I will make a decision after that."

Some householders on Mr Annies' round are angry with Royal Mail's decision. Among them is Joan Page who said a petition has begun to get him reinstated. She said: "We support him fully and want him back as our postman. When he distributed the leaflets he wasn't hiding anything from the Post Office but was using his initiative."

Links

• Anti-junk mail postie loses round (bbc.co.uk)