Tag: Royal Mail

Ministers are set to back Royal Mail’s plans for employee share ownership next week in a move that will trigger a showdown with Labour backbenchers and unions who have condemned the scheme as a partprivatisation of the service. The Times has learnt that Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, and Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, are preparing to endorse the controversial plan as they sanction up to pounds 2 billion in state cash for the organisation next Thursday, when Royal Mail reports profits of more than pounds 600 million.

Royal Mail will also prepare the ground for employee share ownership early in the week when it announces the number of responses to a letter to the 180,000 staff from Allan Leighton, the chairman, asking them if they want free shares. Royal Mail executives are confident that they have a strong number of registrations for shares and may release the number on Monday.

The postal workers’ union bitterly attacked Royal Mail yesterday after the group said it would award a 2.9 per cent pay rise rejected by the union’s leaders. The Communication Workers’ Union said it wanted further talks on the offer and that imposing the deal was “premature and a blatantly hostile act”.
Dave Ward, deputy general secretary, said: “With Royal Mail’s prevailing attitude, a confrontation seems inevitable in the near future.” But Royal Mail said the staff were entitled to the money. “It is backdated to the beginning of April and it is right they should get it now.” The settlement follows payment last year of a bonus of Pounds 1,074 to its employees as reward for their co-operation in returning it to profit over the previous three years.

Royal Mail was on a collision course with its main union last night after it imposed a 2.9 per cent pay rise on staff that had already been rejected by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU). The move was described as “a blatantly hostile act” by the CWU and could provoke a national strike. To impose a pay deal without union agreement in organisations where there is collective bargaining is usually seen as a last resort and is a sign of a breakdown in industrial relations. Royal Mail’s decision, early in the bargaining process, comes as the postal group has moved to block a ballot by the CWU over controversial plans for employee share ownership. Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “Imposing the pay offer is premature and a blatantly hostile act. We are refusing to be pulled on to the punch today, but with Royal Mail’s attitude a confrontation seems inevitable.”