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The chief executive of Royal Mail is to face a rare recall to parliament to face questions over the accuracy of evidence he gave to a committee of MPs.
Simon Thompson, Royal Mail’s boss, has been summoned back by the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, after giving evidence in a sometimes testy exchange last week.
The rare recall of a witness by a parliamentary committee is likely to increase pressure on Thompson, who is already having to deal with a long-running and bitter dispute with workers over pay and working conditions, as well as a recent ransomware attack that crippled Royal Mail’s deliveries from the UK to other countries.
In a letter to Thompson published on Tuesday, the Labour MP Darren Jones, the committee’s chair, wrote: “Following the session, I received a significant amount of correspondence from Royal Mail employees across the country, challenging some of the statements you made to the committee. The committee is now not confident that all the answers you gave during the session were wholly accurate.”
Thompson gave testimony to MPs last Tuesday. The committee raised concerns over the accuracy of his evidence on whether the company punished workers on the basis of evidence of productivity-tracking devices, whether workers were instructed to prioritise parcels over letters, and over the extent of sick pay.
Jones said: “Since Mr Thompson appeared before the committee last week we’ve had significant quantities of evidence that suggest his answers may not have been wholly correct.
“Giving inaccurate information to a parliamentary committee, whether by accident or otherwise, is taken very seriously. We must get to the bottom of these inconsistencies on behalf of parliament and intend to do so during this additional hearing.”
Thank you to all of the Royal Mail and Post Office workers who got it touch today following our @CommonsBEIS hearing on postal services in the UK. There’s clearly more questions to be answered and I’ll make sure that they are. pic.twitter.com/Ji85vqB1MY
— Darren Jones MP (@darrenpjones) January 17, 2023
More than 100,000 workers represented by the Communications Workers Union (CWU) have taken strike action on 18 days in the last year, with seven days in December alone that included Christmas Eve. The union sent out ballot papers on Monday to members to renew its mandate for further strike action.
Royal Mail restarted deliveries of international items last week, after a week of disruption that caused a huge backlog of undelivered items.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We welcome the opportunity to expand on any points on which the committee would like clarification, and share the steps we are taking to resolve this dispute and secure the long-term future of Royal Mail for our people and customers.
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“As the CWU launches its third ballot for industrial action today, we are seeing an increasingly false narrative circulating on our pay and change dispute,” the spokesperson said.
“This is designed to create fear and uncertainty among our employees as the CWU builds support for further damaging strikes, instead of focusing on agreeing a deal to deliver what our customers need and give a pay rise to our people who have already lost about £1,800 each after 18 days of strikes.”
A CWU spokesperson said the union welcomed the decision to recall Thompson and added that the allegations “deserve to be treated with the utmost seriousness”.
“Politicians tasked by voters to conduct scrutinising work with the greatest possible knowledge and clarity have grave concerns about Simon Thompson’s evasive conduct,” the spokesperson said.
