Royal Mail has blamed postal worker strikes for threatened job cuts
Royal Mail has today threatened to cut up to 10,000 roles from its operations by next August. The firm made the announcement in trading update following the latest 24 hour strike by Royal Mail staff, represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU). The strike relates to a dispute over pay and conditions, with postal workers having been offered a below-inflation 2 per cent pay deal.
The firm claims that it is expected to make a £350m annual operating loss in the year ending March 2023, arguing that these losses could increase if customers turn to rival delivery firms. Royal Mail went on to suggest that planned strike action would further intensify losses and potentially lead to further job cuts. The company said that if further strikes go ahead, “the loss for the full year would increase materially and may necessitate further operational restructuring and headcount reduction”.
The announcement from Royal Mail marks a major escalation in the ongoing dispute between CWU and the company’s management.
In November 2021, Royal Mail handed out £400m to shareholders following a boom period for the company during the Covid pandemic. In the last financial year, Royal Mail made a bumper profit of £758m.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward slammed the announcement from Royal Mail. He accused the company of “holding postal workers to ransom”. He said, “The announcement is the result of gross mismanagement and a failed business agenda of ending daily deliveries, a wholesale levelling-down of the terms, pay and conditions of postal workers, and turning Royal Mail into a gig economy style courier. What the company should be doing is abandoning its asset-stripping strategy and building the future based on utilising the competitive edge it already has in its deliveries to 32 million addresses across the country. The CWU is calling for an urgent meeting with the Board and will put forward an alternative business plan at that meeting.“
“This announcement is holding postal workers to ransom for taking legal industrial action against a business approach that is not in the interests of workers, customers or the future of Royal Mail. This is no way to build a company.”
Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 under the coalition government.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward’s trade union coverage is supported by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust
Header image credit: Osde8info – Creative Commons
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