Community trade union welcomes MBO of Whistl UK

Community, the trade union which represents workers at Whistl, has welcomed today’s announcement by Post NL that it is relinquishing its controlling stake in the Whistl business, which will be taken by UK management led by Whistl CEO Nick Wells. Commenting on the announcement, Roy Rickhuss, General Secretary of Community, said: “Over the past four years, we have developed a good partnership relationship with Whistl as it has grown its UK operations.

“We have worked together to improve terms and conditions for employees and ended the use of zero hours contracts in the business.

“Our members have also faced some extremely challenging times, not least the company’s decision to stop its End-to-End business due to investment uncertainty in the UK postal market.

“Nevertheless, we know Nick Wells and his team are determined to continue to grow the company, innovate and create new jobs in the post and packets sector and we look forward to working with them to develop these opportunities.”

As previously reported, the PostNL/Whistl announcement comes just two days after Ofcom issued a ‘Statement of Objections’ to Royal Mail, following a complaint by Whistl, about a potential breach of competition law.

Responding to Ofcom’s preliminary decision, Roy Rickhuss said: “This provisional ruling by Ofcom is too little, too late for the thousands of Whistl workers who lost their jobs.

“Whether Royal Mail breached competition law or not is a moot point for those of our members looking for alternative employment.

“The extent that Royal Mail is able to dictate the costs of its competitors is a continuing cause for concern. We want proper safeguards for the jobs of our members in the post and packets sector and that needs effective action from the government and Ofcom.”

Royal Mail has indicated that it will be submitting a “robust” response to the Ofcom statement.