EXPECT disruptions and avoid posting letters was the message from the Royal Mail as staff stage a 24-hour strike. It is the first national postal strike in 11 years.

Members of the Communications Workers Union, who comprise about 95 per cent of the Royal Mail and Post Office Counters staff in Kent, are walking out between 3am today and 3am tomorrow.

Strikers were expected to man picket lines at sorting depots across the county.

Dave Banbury, chairman of the Kent Invicta branch of the union, said yesterday that he expected the strike call to be obeyed by all his 2,600 branch members.

He said: "Workers who started their shift before 3am will complete it and no doubt management will try to provide some sort of service, but basically there will be very little movement of mail after about 7am."

Mr Banbury said the CWU were also unhappy about modernisation plans.

He added: "This is not just about workers’ pay. It’s about the future of the Royal Mail. If their plans continue, post offices in the UK will be destroyed."

But Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said: “We are losing business because we have failed to modernise. As a result, our costs and prices are higher than those that rivals are charging in the intensely competitive business mail market.”

Royal Mail has advised customers to not post letters and has warned that the money-back guarantee on special delivery items will be void.

Updates on services can be found at www.royalmail.com/update or call 08457 740 740.