Royal Mail dropped by Currys as strikes threaten Christmas orders

STRIKE ACTION: The Royal Mail strikes are planned from December 9 (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire)

Currys has temporarily stopped using Royal Mail for its deliveries due to ongoing strike action.

The news comes as the boss of the electrical retailer spoke on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. Chief executive Alex Baldock told the programme that while this is the situation “for now”, the firm’s first responsibility is to the “UK households who want to get hold their technology, particularly at this time of year”.

He said: “There is no great drama operationally for us. We plan for this sort of thing all the time. There are relatively few smaller parcels that we distribute through Royal Mail (and) they are easily switchable to another provider.

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“The bigger point here is that clearly on the one hand we see with our own colleagues and our own customers up close, the impact of the cost of living crisis that is obviously at the root of these strikes. On the other hand, it doesn’t help when our colleagues can’t get to work.

“It doesn’t help when we can’t get stuff delivered to customers and of course a wage-price inflationary spiral is simply going to make things worse for everybody for longer.”

The chief executive also said his staff have been given a 16% pay rise, above the rate of inflation, because “we need to retain and motivate a workforce” and that is “the price we are paying for the right talent”. He said that the increase has been “16% over the past year and nearly 40% over the past five years”.

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He added: “I would love to say it is just because we are nice people, and of course we are, but it is also because we need to retain and motivate a workforce. In a business like ours it is very hard for the experience of the customer to be better than that of the colleague and that is why we put so much attention into retaining and motivating colleagues – what we need obviously is access to talent and it is the price we are paying for the right talent.”

The Mirror reported that Royal Mail workers are due to strike on December 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24.

Royal Mail said: “We operate in a competitive market, and our customers have choices. Strikes will force customers to make those choices sooner rather than later.”

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