UK Royal Mail managers threaten strike over job cuts

Middle managers at Royal Mail are threatening to go on strike over plans to cut 3,000 jobs, claiming they are being bullied into agreeing to voluntary redundancies.

The postal group is slashing its headcount in non-operational management areas such as marketing and finance. It said yesterday that more than 2,000 staff had signed up to a voluntary redundancy package. “We want to do everything we can to deal with surpluses on a voluntary basis,” Royal Mail said.

But it added that it had “always been the case” that compulsory job cuts would be necessary if there were not enough people taking voluntary redundancy.

It is likely that about 650 managers will be forced to leave over the next few months.

Amicus, the union representing the group’s non-operational management, is considering a strike ballot over Royal Mail’s handling of the cuts. The union said staff were being threatened with less generous redundancy terms if they did not agree to the voluntary package by March 25. The group had not tried hard enough to redeploy staff, it said.

Peter Skyte, Amicus national officer for Royal Mail, said: “Royal Mail has been duplicitous. At the same time as they have been saying to us that they are seeking to secure changes by voluntary means, they are drawing up plans for compulsory redundancy.

“There is now every prospect that Royal Mail’s managers may be balloted on industrial action for the first time in 20 years if the company seeks to impose compulsory redundancy or reneges on the terms of the job security agreement with us.”

The row comes as Royal Mail management seems to have soothed its traditionally volatile relations with postal workers.

Last October wildcat strikes by London postal workers spread across the south-east and into the Midlands, threatening to paralyse the country’s mail network. The strikes were triggered by a variety of factors, from low pay and shift allocation to vermin in postal depots.

Last month the picture was very different. Members of the Communication Workers’ Union voted in favour of Royal Mail’s most recent pay deal. Staff at almost 900 of Royal Mail’s 1,400 delivery offices have agreed to implement radical changes to working practices, with the remaining 500 offices likely to have signed up by the end of April.

Meeting these productivity targets will trigger a 10 per cent pay increase, part of a 14.5 per cent total rise over 18 months. When the package was announced last year, union officials were worried that the targets could not be met. But Royal Mail claims that many local offices have already met them, and are now being paid the extra wages.