Related Articles
At times, the impression is that the recent wave of damaging strikes, not just at the Royal Mail, but also BT, the railways, the country’s ports, and other vital parts of the economy has been driven more by a desire among hard-left union barons to score points against a Tory Government than a duty to properly represent their members’ interests.
The Royal Mail’s proposals aren’t even that egregious. The company wants to make Sunday hours compulsory so that it can compete better in a world where parcel deliveries are growing rapidly.
The Royal Mail’s Sunday service currently relies on staff volunteering, yet at rivals such as Amazon and DPD, a seven-day operation has long been standard practice. Shifts end in the afternoon but it also wants to introduce longer hours because parcel deliveries occur mostly in the evening.
A 2pc pay rise backdated to April is on the table, alongside a further 1.5pc if the proposed changes are accepted. Workers will also get another 2pc for hitting productivity targets.
Ward’s claim that all of this counts for “the biggest ever assault on their [postal workers] jobs, terms and conditions in the history of Royal Mail”, doesn’t stack up at an organisation where some of its working practices are from a bygone era.
The practice of clocking in and out on hand-written sheets remains after repeated attempts to introduce electronic swipe cards were stubbornly resisted. Requests from depots for faster electronic sorting machines must also be approved by unions, and the CWU has even been allowed to decide which employees get the much-coveted shorter, less hilly routes.
The union has not only rejected Royal Mail’s deal as some sort of affront to common decency, but put forward a “no-strings” counter-proposal that leaves little, if any, room for negotiation. It wants salary rises in line with inflation, currently at a 40-year high of around 10pc, and expected to stay there well into next year.
Yet, Royal Mail posties already earn on average roughly 40pc more than their counterparts. On top of that, the CWU has also demanded that working hours are reduced and anyone over 55 years-old handed lighter duties. Its pay proposal alone would cost more than £1bn a year, yet bizarrely, it is portrayed as a blueprint for the future.
The CWU dismisses the case for modernisation despite the fact that Royal Mail is losing money hand over fist, partly thanks to the strikes that the union has instigated – a case of turkeys voting for Christmas if ever there was one.
The company slumped to a £219m loss in the first half of the year with £70m of those coming from strike action. Full-year losses are expected to hit £350m this year, though that is expected to rise to £450m if planned walkouts went ahead, it said.
The CWU’s favourite retort is that the Royal Mail returned £400m to shareholders last year therefore it must be able to afford a more generous pay rise for employees. Yet, that came on the back of a one-off Covid boom that had completely fizzled out by the following summer as losses reached £1m a day.
In facing down the CWU, Royal Mail has prepared the ground for every other major company and industry that has found itself at the mercy of militant union leaders. At a time of growing hardship, the country cannot be held to ransom by those seemingly hell-bent on destruction.
Source link
