UK Royal Mail chief urges staff to take shares

ALLAN LEIGHTON, Royal Mail’s chairman, has raised the stakes in the controversy over employee share ownership by asking for support from the 180,000 workforce.

Mr Leighton is this week writing to all Royal Mail’s staff about the scheme, which has angered the main postal union and caused widespread concern among Labour politicians. He has asked for their backing in a move that he hopes will kill off arguments against the scheme, which many see as the first step towards privatisation.

Mr Leighton’s appeal comes as the Communication Workers Union is preparing to ballot its members over whether they want Royal Mail to remain in public ownership. The union has also rejected a 2.9 per cent pay increase.

The Government is considering a request for a Pounds 2 billion cash injection as part of a restructuring. Mr Leighton and Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, both want employee share ownership to be part of that. Yet the move needs legislation and 214 have signed a Commons motion in opposition, including 199 Labour MPs, making a substantial rebellion seem inevitable.

John Grogan, Labour MP for Selby, who tabled the motion, said: “I hope the Government recognises the strength of feeling on the backbenches and rule out the sale of shares in this parliament.” Meanwhile, it has emerged that the review of the future of Royal Mail by Sir George Bain, the former chairman of the Low Pay Commission, has shrunk to only a narrow focus on price regulation. It had been expected that he would cover all the issues relating to the business and report to Mr Johnson.