Union Warns Against Post Office Panic Measures

Billy Hayes, the General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union said that today’s announcement of huge losses and threats to jobs in Consignia/Royal Mail should not lead to “knee-jerk reactions that the company would regret later”.
He said the union would work with the employer to improve productivity where it was reasonable and beneficial to the service. “Naturally, we want all our members to have secure employment in a profitable business,” he said. “But that involves all sections of the postal partnership being realistic – and that includes government.”
Billy insists that the results are “indeniably bad” but says that lessons can be learned. “One is that we have to take the business off the political football pitch. It has suited the government to keep the price of stamps artificially low for years. Had prices risen in line with inflation,
the business would have an extra £500 million, and have made an operational profit of over £200 million.
“The business is also being made to pay for the project to computerise Post Offices (Horizon). It never wanted this system, which was forced upon them by the government. It was supposed to provide links to benefits agencies, but never worked. This failed government PPP initiative cost the Post Office a billion pounds. It was a social, not a commercial decision, but the Post Office ended up paying.
“Without this, and with an economic pricing system, there would be no crisis in the Post Office at all.”
The union is understandably opposed to management’s desire to cut staffing by 15,000 to 17,000 jobs. “We simply cannot accept this, practically or morally,” Billy said. “Delivering mail to every door in the UK is a labour-intensive operation. Indiscriminately shedding staff is not an option if we are to continue the universal service.”
He said the union would insist that “any and every job cut” is justified by management and that it would not affect the service nor impact adversely on work-mates.
“There is plenty of scope to extend the postal and delivery industry into new areas, such as the delivery of goods ordered over the internet,” Billy said. “This business is expanding. We have a world of opportunity. Retraction at this point would be plain daft.”
Billy was less concerned at the new name Alan Leighton is proposing for the business. “We ran a campaign to get rid of the ludicrous ‘Consignia’ title and we’re pleased to see the back of it. But now we want to put that folly behind us, and get on with re-establishing a first class post office.”