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Royal Mail is set to cut 700 jobs as part of a huge cost-cutting reorganisation of the business.
The postal service announced plans to make 700 managers redundant, which would save around £40million every year – that’s around £57,142 per manager.
Around £30million of that would come between April 2022 and April 2023, the Mirror reports.
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However, there would be a one-off cost of £70million to make all the redundancies – which Royal Mail would pay before April this year.
Royal Mail also delivered 11% fewer parcels in 2021 compared to 2020, and 3% fewer letters, according to a statement this morning.
This is due to lockdowns, the Royal Mail said.
The firm said “mid‐single digit” percentages of parcels sent in the first nine months of the year were Covid-19 test kits.
(Image: Getty Images)
The firm’s revenues fell by 2.4% in the period, but this is still up 17.1% when compared to 2019.
The news comes as Royal Mail warns of disruption at ten of its delivery offices in the UK as it continues to be hit by staff absences.
A Royal Mail statement today said staff absences peaked at around 12% of its workforce in January – 15,000 people in total.
It added: “This has resulted in increased costs and impacted quality of service in some areas of the country. We are providing targeted support to the local offices most affected by elevated absence.”
The firm is now consulting on the move, which will involve unions Unite, CMA and CWU.
A Royal Mail statement said: “Our successful ‘Day in the Life of’ initiative has already reduced administration for frontline managers and allowed us to repurpose over one million annualised hours so that managers can spend more time focusing on their teams and customers.
“As a next step, subject to consultation, we intend to further simplify and streamline our operational structures to ensure an improved focus on local performance, and devolve more accountability and flexibility to frontline operational managers.”
Royal Mail chairman Keith Williams said: “The past few months have demonstrated that the challenge for Royal Mail is to improve both quality and efficiency.
“Looking forwards, the delivery of our transformation and modernisation plans remain incredibly important in light of the fast‐paced change we are seeing and ongoing inflationary pressures.”
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