UK's CWU calls for parliamentary probe into Royal Mail
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has called for the Trade and Industry Select committee to open an investigation into the true financial situation at Royal Mail but added it is prepared to talk to management ahead of a planned strike on pay.
CWU general secretary David Ward said his members believed Royal Mail, which owns the Post Office, is exaggerating the seriousness of the company’s financial position.
“The Post Office’s financial position is not as bad as they are making out,” he told a news conference at the Trades Union Congress annual conference here.
Ward challenged the Royal Mail claims that 16,000 staff had left the business when the company’s accounts for the two years to March 31 showed only 2,000 redundancies.
He also said last year’s loss of 611 mln stg contained a £473m provision for redundancy payments and the core mail business made a £66m which is forecast to rise to £100m stg this year.
Ward said the union is ready to meet with management formally to put forward “reasonable suggestions”.
“The ball is in the employers’ court if they are serious about resolving this dispute,” he said.
He added that informal contacts have taken place between the CWU and Royal Mail bosses.
Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton has already appealed to the firm’s 160,000 employees not to strike over pay, saying such a move would be “commercial suicide”.
He said a strike would cost the publicly listed Royal Mail up to £20m stg a day and would jeopardise the entire business, “putting everyone’s future at risk”.
Royal Mail says its existing pay offer is worth 14.5% extra over 18 months, while the CWU counters that the bulk of this is tied up in productivity improvements.
