Postal groups not keen to cover in strike

Private sector postal companies are lukewarm about providing cover if there is a national postal strike, undermining a central plank of the Royal Mail’s bargaining strategy with unions.

The Communication Workers’ Union will hold a ballot of its 160,000 members this week after rejecting the Royal Mail’s offer of a 14.5 per cent pay rise linked to changes in working practices. If approved the industrial action would be the first national postal strike in seven years and would be a blow to Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman.

The Royal Mail has warned the union it “will not emerge from even the threat of a ballot unscathed . . . If postmen and women walk out, customers will walk away and competitors walk in.”

But the private companies claim to be lukewarm about the prospect of delivering post in the event of a strike.

Four companies – Hays, TPG of the Netherlands, UK Mail and Express Dairies – hold licences to operate in the UK postal market, mostly handling business post.

If a postal strike lasting at least 24 hours hits a minimum of three Royal Mail post centres, the companies would be entitled to run a universal postal service to rival the Royal Mail.

But Hays said that, if there was a postal strike, it would be “business as usual” at the company. It would stick to servicing existing business customers. “We are experts at what we do,” said the company, adding it would not want or be able to change its operational structures to provide a wider postal service.

Paul Carvell, chief executive of Business Post, owner of UK Mail, said he was making contingency plans for a strike. The company plans to transport business post for new customers providing they can drop off pre-sorted sacks at depots and pick them up at the other end.

Mr Carvell said: “We are working on a simple service that we think could help people.” But he stressed UK Mail was not trying to capitalise on any Royal Mail industrial action.

Express Dairies uses its network of milk deliverers to distribute mainly business-to-consumer packages.

Out of its competitors, the company is probably best-placed to expand services during a strike as its distribution network already exists.

Tim Smith, a director at the company, said: “We would look at delivering added volumes if customers wanted us to, but it would have to be on commercial terms.”

Postwatch, the consumer watchdog, said the government must encourage private companies to offer strike cover.

It recommended suspending Royal Mail’s monopoly for a year, regardless of the length of industrial action, as companies would not expand deliveries for shorter periods.

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