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Dave Ward has described Royal Mail’s announcement that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs by August 2023 as the result of “gross mismanagement”.
Commenting after Royal Mail revealed plans to begin notifying postal workers of the job losses, which include up to 6,000 redundancies, the general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) blamed a “failed business agenda”.
“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 parcel courier,” he said.
“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 postal company has said that, outside of the 6,000 redundancies, it will reduce its workforce through natural attrition by not replacing staff who leave. Royal Mail said it expects full-year losses of £350m, saying that this includes “the direct impact of eight days of industrial action”.
The company claimed its precarious financial position means that it cannot afford to pay the historical redundancy package of up to two years’ pay to staff.
CWU has called for an “urgent meeting” with the Royal Mail board following the announcement this morning, during which Ward said the union will “put forward an alternative business plan”.
“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,” he added.
Shares in Royal Mail’s parent company, IDS, fell 14% today. Its international parcels business is on track to meet market expectations of making a profit of between €370m and €410m for the full year – but the company has said that the international arm of its business should not be used to subsidise its UK operation.
Parent company IDS reported a loss of £219m for the first half of this financial year, having recorded profits of £235m during the last financial year. Royal Mail has attributed around £70m of its losses to industrial action.
CWU members have been engaged in strike action over pay and conditions. Around 115,000 staff participated in industrial action in what the union said is the biggest national strike of any sector this year.
Almost 98% of members – with a turnout of 77% – voted in favour of the strike action, with the union calling on Royal Mail to give workers a “dignified, proper pay rise” that covers the rising cost of living.
Ward said at the time that Royal Mail had “imposed, not negotiated” a 2% pay rise while claiming it had offered a 5.5% uplift. He stressed: “That’s simply not true.” He said the pay offer included a ‘bonus scheme’ but that the company “can’t even explain what it is or when our members are going to get that money”.
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