Crozier second highest paid public sector boss on £1m

Adam Crozier, chief executive of the Royal Mail, was facing accusations of hypocrisy after being ranked as Britain’s second most highly paid public sector boss taking home almost £1m, reports The Daily Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph’s article continues:

His pay package, more than five times what the Prime Minister earned, puts him above the heads of Network Rail, the BBC and Olympic Games Organising Committee in the public sector earnings chart.

His appearance at the top of the list represents an embarrassment for Royal Mail as negotiators search for a deal to end weeks of strikes in a bitter dispute over jobs and pay for postal workers.

The number of items of mail left stranded in sorting offices soared to 60m over the weekend after the latest wave of strikes with plans for two all-out walkouts next week.

There are fears that the 2bn letters and cards delivered over the Christmas period could be at risk if the dispute is not resolved quickly.

Although there are hopes of a deal in the coming days, a legal action by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) could also sour the negotiations.

The pay chart, compiled for ITV’s Tonight programme, showed that Crozier received £995,000 in pay and bonuses in the financial year 2008-2009.

He took home more than £3m the previous year because of a one-off payment from a company bonus scheme worth almost £2m.

The CWU accused Crozier of hypocrisy in his efforts to modernise the beleaguered company which is grappling with a multi-billion pound pension deficit.

“You have got one of the highest paid public servants in Britain and his agenda is to reduce pay and terms and conditions for the workers who work for him,” a spokesman for the union said.

The union claims that changes to working practices and a greater reliance on automation could lead to 60,000 job losses.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said Crozier’s pay was less than the year before despite the business doubling its profits in the same period.

Talks to avert further strikes are due to get under way today after a weekend of behind-the-scenes activity aimed at reaching a settlement.

But a widely trailed High Court action by the CWU is finally expected to come to court on Monday or Tuesday, just as talks reach a critical moment with a possible deal on the table.

The union is seeking an injunction forcing Royal Mail to send home 30,000 “strike breaking” temporary workers.

Union sources conceded that the timing could sour the negotiations at a sensitive moment but insisted that it would go ahead nevertheless.

Lawyers for the CWU are expected to go before a High Court judge seeking a declaration that use of casual staff in the current dispute is illegal.

They will argue that the use of agency workers to replace staff taking part in legitimate industrial action breaches employment law.

If the attempt succeeds, it would mean the Royal Mail would be forced to send the temporary staff home, scuppering efforts to clear the mounting backlog.

The company says that about half of the 30,000 casual workers would have been taken on anyway as part of the annual Christmas post effort and insisted that the casuals are not replacing striking workers.

The two sides are understood to have made progress at new negotiations on Friday, chaired by Brendan Barber, the secretary general of the TUC.

Negotiators have spent the weekend examining the fine print of a possible deal, before meeting their respective executive bodies this morning ahead of renewed negotiations later today or early tomorrow.

A union source accepted that the court action could be seen as unhelpful at a time when a deal is thought to be close.

“It could but it is going to happen, we have made a decision on that,” he said. “We held back last week, it is separate to the talks, it is a matter of law.”

The company also said that a quarter of the 77,000 delivery workers expected to be involved in a strike on Saturday turned up for work but the union described the figure as “nonsense” claiming that Royal Mail was counting workers who were on holiday or sick.