Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail’s service quality last year was the best on record, and was ahead of its targets for the vast majority of the mail, according to preliminary figures published today. 94.1% of First Class letters were delivered the working day after posting, compared to a target for the service of 93%. 98.8% of Second Class letters arrived within three days, compared to a target of 98.5%. Chief Executive Adam Crozier said, “These are fantastic results – they are the best ever, they are ahead of targets, and they show a sustained period of record performance stretching back to the summer of 2004. These levels of performance show that Royal Mail is determined to compete for business by offering customers the very best service at a value for money price. Rivals will find our standards difficult to match. Royal Mail’s postmen and women have done a first class job.”

Postal workers will be balloted for nationwide strikes unless a row over pay is resolved by next month, union leaders warned today. The Communication Workers Union gave Royal Mail a deadline for making progress on a dispute which has flared after the company decided to impose a 2.9% wage rise on postal workers.
In a letter to CWU members today, the union said it was “totally opposed” to the Royal Mail’s behaviour. Industrial relations have suffered in recent weeks after the union accused Royal Mail of trying to disrupt a ballot it was holding on future strategies covering pay, working conditions and pensions. The leadership has tabled a motion to next week’s annual conference of the CWU in Bournemouth urging the Royal Mail to reopen negotiations and to allow postal workers to have a vote on a final settlement.

The Government today maintained it had not made any decision on whether to back a Royal Mail plan to issue shares to its workers. The idea, strongly supported by Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton, has alarmed the Communication Workers Union, which believes it would be a first step to privatising the postal service. New Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said today he would not be rushed into making any decision on whether to support the move. He said: “I have taken no decision at all. I am only 10 days into this job and I will not be rushed into any decision.” Mr Darling said he will be meeting Mr Leighton soon to discuss the shares issue.

Royal Mail will reveal this week that its pension-fund deficit has swollen from pounds 4.4 billion to pounds 5.5 billion, a figure that will put further pressure on the government to pump extra money into the group. The huge rise in the deficit, which has resulted from an actuarial review on mortality rates, will accompany full-year results that will show profits rising to pounds 600m. To address the bigger hole in the pension fund, Royal Mail will have to increase its annual contribution from pounds 600m to pounds 800m. Allan Leighton, Royal Mail’s chairman, is due to meet Alistair Darling, the new trade and industry secretary, early this week to allay any concerns the government may have in funding a pounds 2 billion rights issue.

Ministers are expected to give the go-ahead for public investment in Royal Mail, the state-owned postal operator, after being convinced by executives of the need for new technology and equipment. But a decision remains some way off on whether to endorse a controversial share-ownership scheme for company employees that has been proposed by Allan Leighton, its chairman. Royal Mail has been lobbying ministers, arguing that it desperately needs Pounds 2bn of fresh investment in new equipment to survive in a fully liberalised postal market. It has a Pounds 4.5bn pension deficit that executives believe could swell further. After long talks between the company and the Department of Trade and Industry and consultation with the Treasury, next week’s announcement of Royal Mail’s 2005 results is expected to provide an indication of the scale of probable government support and the conditions that will be attached. Talks between ministers and Royal Mail were said by one person close to the negotiations yesterday to be “fluid”.