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Royal Mail workers picket outside a delivery office in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, Britain, on Sept. 8. Royal Mail said it could cut up to 10,000 jobs in 2023. Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
Oct. 14 (UPI) — Royal Mail, which provides mail collection and delivery services throughout Britain, said on Friday it could cut up to 10,000 jobs by next August, blaming an ongoing strike and a half-year loss of $247.2 million.
The firm said some of the jobs will be cut through “natural attrition” but others will be replaced because of “redundancies.”
“We will be starting the process of consulting on rightsizing the business in response to the impact of industrial action, delays in delivering agreed productivity improvements and lower parcel volumes,” Royal Mail said in its outlook.
“Short-term cost efficiencies being achieved through an estimated reduction of around 5,000 full-time equivalents operational roles by March 2023 and c.10,000 by end of August 2023 (on a rolling 12-month basis). Based on current estimates, c.5,000-6,000 redundancies may be required by end of August 2023.”
Royal Mail said it is expecting to sustain a full-year adjusted operating loss of around $392 million, including the direct, immediate impact of eight days of strikes that have taken place or been notified to Royal Mail.
The Communication Workers Union said, though, that Royal Mail’s woes have come from its management failures and not its employees or strikes.
“The announcement is the result of gross mismanagement and a failed business agenda of ending daily deliveries, a wholesale leveling-down of the terms, pay and conditions of postal workers, and turning Royal Mail into a gig economy style parcel courier,” CWU’s General Secretary Dave Ward said in a statement.
“What the company should be doing is abandoning its asset-stripping strategy and building the future based on utilizing the competitive edge it already has in its deliveries to 32 million addresses across the country.”
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