UK Royal Mail to re-enlist labour peer industrial relations
Royal Mail will again enlist Labour peer Lord Sawyer to help improve relations between workers and management in an attempt to avoid further postal strikes.
Royal Mail said it was pleased with the back-to-work agreement reached with the Communication Workers’ Union on Monday. “But we will continue to involve Lord Sawyer to move things on,” an executive said yesterday.
Two years ago Lord Sawyer, a former general secretary of the Labour party and ex-union official, was commissioned by Royal Mail to examine its industrial relations and suggest ways to resolve widespread unofficial strike action.
Faults were identified on both sides, including union militancy and out-dated, authoritarian management practices. Lord Sawyer’s report on the situation ushered in a period of relative calm, which ended two months ago with a new row over pay and conditions.
Lord Sawyer said yesterday he had not yet been asked to help, but he hoped to hold meetings with Royal Mail and the CWU after the end of the current talks at Acas, the conciliation service. The talks, on pay and conditions, could last several weeks, said Royal Mail.
Lord Sawyer said he would like to keep pursuing the measures suggested to Royal Mail in 2001, including partnership working. “Not only do I think the management and unions need to change, but I think they are capable of doing it,” he said.
Although Royal Mail and the CWU called a truce early on Monday, the company admits that antagonism between managers and workers at local level remains a problem.
Meanwhile, the Department of Trade and Industry has appointed Nigel Stapleton as chairman of Postcomm, the postal regulator. Mr Stapleton is chairman of Uniq, the convenience food group, and until July this year also chaired Cordiant, the advertising agency. He was ousted by shareholders after the takeover of the agency by WPP, the advertising group.
Mr Stapleton will take over from Graham Corbett, Postcomm chairman, in January. Mr Corbett remains in charge of setting access fees, Postcomm’s next big decision. These are the prices private sector competitors will have to pay to use Royal Mail’s distribution network, and a decision is likely before the end of the year.
