‘Gross mismanagement’ of Royal Mail to blame for firm’s £1bn losses, union says

THE “gross mismanagement” of Royal Mail is to blame for the privatised firm slumping to losses of more than £1 billion, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) warned today.

The owner of the 500-year-old company, International Distributions Services (IDS), revealed it suffered an operating loss of £1.04bn for the year to late March, against earnings of £250 million the previous year.  

The British multinational claimed the financial hit at Royal Mail, whose under-pressure boss Simon Thompson announced last week that he will soon step down, was largely down to 18 days of crippling industrial action which it said resulted in £200m losses.

But CWU stressed that the “serious situation is one of its own making due to gross mismanagement.”

About 115,000 of its members launched national strikes across the firm last August, accusing bosses of trying to impose gig-economy-style working conditions and more take-home pay cuts.

The union agreed a deal with management last month which, if backed by members in a ballot in June, could bring the bitter dispute to an end.

A union spokesperson added: “We now need to see actions rather than words.

“The toxic environment created by a senior management team that has gone to war with its own workforce needs to end immediately.

“In recent weeks, there has been no let-up on the culture of imposition, disregard for quality of service and the destruction of the service to the public.

“Royal Mail Group is at a crossroads — it cannot and will not survive without taking the workforce with it through this period.”

The resignation of Mr Thompson, which came after he was accused of misleading MPs over allegations that bosses were using “intrusive tech” to monitor workers, preceded Monday’s announcement that less than three-quarters of first-class mail has been delivered within one working day over the past year. 

The 73.7 per cent figure is well-behind the 93 per cent target. 

IDS chairman Keith Williams said: “We apologise to everyone for not delivering a quality of service to the standards that we expect.

“It’s been a difficult year for Royal Mail, in particular for customers, our people and shareholders.

“We are absolutely committed that we do improve our quality of service and start to deliver to customers the service that they pay for.”