Post Service has wrong leaders, say managers
MOST senior postal managers fear that the service has the wrong leadership. In a survey of more than 600 managers by the trade union Amicus, 85 per cent said that Consignia “does not have the right leadership to meet the challenges it faces”.
The findings come amid plans by Postcomm, the postal regulator, to open the postal market to competition in phases, starting in April.
They also coincide with the threat of a national strike over pay. Consignia has made a new pay offer of 2.1 per cent instead of 1.9 per cent but this has been ruled out by the Communication Workers’ Union, which wants a 5 per cent pay rise and a commitment to a Pounds 300 minimum weekly wage.
Roger Lyons, joint general secretary of Amicus, said: “The service faces meltdown if the plan for competition is implemented too fast.”A Consignia spokesman said: “The pressures and changes we face are greater than ever. For our managers to feel the future is uncertain is not surprising.”
Mr Lyons has called for talks with the Government over Consignia, amid growing political pressure on the Department of Trade and Industry. Last week Billy Hayes, the Communication Workers Union general-secretary, said that the union could reduce its contributions to Labour if ministers did not intervene to change the regulator’s plans for competition. A large number of MPs have also backed a Commons motion calling for Postcomm’s proposals to be slowed down.
Managers also told Amicus that they were under severe amounts of stress from their work. Sixty one per cent said that they suffered from work-related stress and 69 per cent said that their morale had deteriorated over the past 12 months. Seventy per cent of managers believed that Consignia was heading in the wrong direction.
Consignia is finalising plans to lose up to 30,000 jobs as part of a Pounds 1.2 billion costcutting programme. The efficiency drive is intended to help the company, which is losing Pounds 1 million a day, to restore profitability and compete more effectively with rival businesses.
So far, it faces competition from small, niche companies, but from April it is planned that rivals can vie for parts of the lucrative bulk business mail market.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2002
