Tag: Royal Mail

DWP slammed over Royal Mail

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was irresponsible and short- sighted for dropping a GBP12m Royal Mail contract hampering efforts to tackle the firm’s gaping GBP5.6bn pension deficit, a Liberal Democrat MP said.

The DWP, Whitehall’s biggest department, awarded private firm UK Mail with a GBP12m postal contract at a time when the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) is desperately trying to plug the GBP22bn Royal Mail pension scheme’s deficit.

The government-owned former monopoly has struggled to retain business after postal services were fully opened to competition last year. Since then it’s lost more than 10% of the mail-handling market to private firms.

Alistair Carmichael, MP for the Northern Isles and part of the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team, said he had huge problems with public money paying private firms to undermine public services such as Royal Mail.

“It seems irresponsible from the DWP to set this example. Here’s the government department responsible for sorting the pensions crisis and it’s pulling the rug from under a company with a major pensions deficit,” he added.

The Royal Mail pension scheme is the sixth largest in the UK, with 170,000 active members and 279,000 retired or deferred members.

A spokesman for the DWP refused to comment on Carmichael’s accusations, but said: “Royal Mail continues to be a major supplier for the DWP and it’s only a small contract that has been lost.

“Anything to do with its pension scheme is a matter for Royal Mail. It’s about getting better value for money for the taxpayer and our actions have done this.”

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EU holds sway over UK post office funds

Posted by | Jan 13, 2007 | |

Bridgwater’s MP Ian Liddell-Grainger stated in the January 6 issue of the Bridgwater Times that he hopes to clarify the situation regarding post office closures and is mystified as to why post offices need to be closed when there is an annual rural grant of GBP150 million.

The right to give state aid was signed away by the British Government to the EU and now permission has to be sought from that body before the Government can give aid – the post office being a prime example of this state of affairs.

The permission for the subsidy was initially granted by the EU for three years and the present subsidy finishes in 2008.

The EU has not agreed to an extension.

The plight of post offices has been exacerbated by the withdrawal of such services as the sale of TV licences, as well as pressure on pensioners to make alternative arrangements for receiving their pensions.

The sum of GBP150 million is set with no adjustment for inflation.

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Royal Mail staff to receive 'phantom' shares

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

Ministers in the UK are likely to approve plans that would give tens of thousands of Royal Mail workers “phantom shares” in the company, linking their pay to the state-owned postal operator’s performance.

The plan, the details of which have yet to be agreed by Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, and Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman, could lead to its employees being handed up to GBP5,000 each in the shares over five years.

The shares would be bought and sold like real ones, within a trust mirroring the scheme at John Lewis, the retail group.

The phantom shares favoured by ministers would behave like shares and go up and down in value in line with the company’s performance. But they would confer no ownership rights.

Both sides said on Thursday night no final decision had been taken on how to incentivise staff. It is believed Mr Leighton would accept a phantom scheme, provided the value matched his proposal of GBP5,000 over five years.

Mr Leighton has been lobbying the government to set up an employee share ownership scheme as an essential move to win the co-operation of employees in restructuring and modernisation. But the CWU argues this would be tantamount to privatisation and 199 Labour MPs have opposed it in a Commons motion.

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New Network Director for the Post Office

Posted by | Jan 10, 2007 | |

Retail executive Paula Vennells, who has worked with many of the UK’s leading consumer brands, has joined the Post Office® in the key role of Network Director.

She brings with her a wealth of experience from a range of companies including the Whitbread Group, Argos, Great Universal Stores, Sears, Dixons Stores Group, Reed International and Lunn Poly.

Paula, who also joins the Post Office Executive Team, said: “I’m very pleased to be joining the Post Office and to be taking on a central role in a network that serves 24m customers a week.”

She will report to Post Office Managing Director Alan Cook, who said: “I’m delighted to welcome Paula. She has the skills and background that make her ideally equipped for the job.”

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Siemens wins 55 million euro order from Royal Mail

Posted by | Jan 9, 2007 | |

Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) has won a 55 million euro order from Royal Mail, the British postal service provider, to upgrade its Integrated Mail Processor Systems (IMP) for standard letter sorting. The systems will be fitted with new letter flow and reading equipment which will increase throughput by up to 20 percent. Conversion work is due to be completed by October 2008.

The IMP sorting systems from the I&S Postal Automation Division were put into operation between 1996 and 2002 and form the foundation of automatic letter processing at Royal Mail. The systems can perform the entire letter processing functions – such as preprocessing, reading, coding and sorting – in one process operation. Installing the Advanced Color Recognizer system will make new reading technology functions possible. This will enable more letters to be channeled into automated preprocessing and thus reduce manual handling. There will also be further improvements to the letter facing and reading processes. The separation of first and second class mail will become simpler and more efficient. Moreover, the recognition of postage stamps, meter marks, barcodes and electronic stamps will provide automated revenue protection.

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