Union attacks postal privatisation on UK’s National Postal Workers Day

Postal workers in the UK marked National Postal Workers Day yesterday with celebrations in York, Cardiff, Bristol, Brighton, Norwich, Rochdale and Shrewsbury. It saw mail carriers across the country delivering mail wearing Santa hats.

But union members also continued their campaign protesting government plans to privatise Royal Mail, and opposing trials being run by competitive postal operators in providing door-to-door mail delivery services.

The Communication Workers Union, which represents 150,000 Royal Mail workers, claimed yesterday that allowing private companies to “chase profit” in the postal sector would “make the well-known local postman or woman a thing of the past”.

The union says private sector firms would force delivery staff to go part time.

Billy Hayes, the CWU general secretary, said: “Our experience is that private postal companies don’t pay a living wage and put workers on zero hours contracts which means they never know when or where they are working.”

A ‘zero hours contract’ is one in which an employer does not guarantee to provide a certain number of hours’ work per week, only using them as and when needed. The contracts are used in the retail and business sectors, but have also been used in the National Health Service.

Hayes said: “It destroys family life and takes the postmen and women out of the communities where they have been embedded for years.”

National Postal Workers Day came on one of the busiest days of the year for the UK postal system, with Royal Mail expected to handle 130m items yesterday alone.

Dave Ward, the CWU deputy general secretary, said the day’s celebrations highlighted the work of postal workers ensuring the “vital” public service delivered to “everyone, everywhere”, six days per week 52 weeks of the year.

The CWU’s anger over private sector competition is focusing on TNT Post UK’s mail delivery trial in West London. The company has declined to comment to Post&Parcel on its pay rates for delivery staff.

Privatisation

Meanwhile, the CWU is also protesting the privatisation of Royal Mail Group, which could take place in late 2013 or early 2014 depending on market interest.

Royal Mail has now appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, along with existing advisers Barclays, to help it prepare for potential privatisation and seek interest from investors. UBS has been advising the UK government on the issue.

No formal appointments relating to an actual sale have been made at this stage, the company said, pointing out that a separate government process would be required.

The Financial Times reported yesterday that at least 10% of Royal Mail Group would be owned by staff under the government’s plans. That plan was part of last year’s Postal Services Act, and would see some kind of employee share ownership scheme set up.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills told Post&Parcel this morning that the exact structure and timetable for privatizing Royal Mail was yet to be decided, but that “we are starting that process now”.