Tag: UK

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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DHL launches WEEE Roadshows

Posted by | Jan 15, 2007 | |

DHL Environmental Compliance Solutions is holding a series of seminars to help businesses get to grips with the new WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) legislation introduced to the UK earlier this month.

The WEEE regulations affect retailers, importers and brand owners of electrical products, forcing them to take responsibility for the safe and responsible treatment of disused electrical products and appliances.

DHL is concerned that while big businesses understand the new regulations and have put processes in place to fulfill their WEEE obligations, many smaller companies have not even heard of the new legislation. And with the 15th March deadline fast approaching for businesses to register with an approved compliance scheme, companies need to act quickly.

DHL is holding free seminars in the UK in nine cities in February and early March.

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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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The European Mail Manifesto: growth, partnership and innovation in a changing industry

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

The Postal Users Group has issued a manifesto on the main interests of business users of postal services to encourage the European Commission to take the postal users needs into account when it is preparing its next proposals on postal services this year. PUG, an alliance of the major postal users representing 15 trade associations and businesses, points out in its manifesto that the postal services cover a very wide range of businesses and systems. The letter mail business of Europe´s postal operators represent about 1 million jobs and revenues of 47 billion euro; however, PUG shows that the wider sector accounts for an additional 4 million jobs and over 150 billion euro of revenues.

Contents (i)
List of figures (ii)
List of case studies (ii)
List of annexes (ii)
Signatories (iii)
Foreword (iv)
Author’s Foreword (v)
Executive summary (vi)
1. Introduction 1
2. The postal segment of the mail industry
3. The broader mailing industry 17
4. A shared vision for the future 25
5. Conclusion 33
Annex 36
Bibliography 38
P:LibraryPostalEuropean Mail Manifesto PUG 0706.pdf

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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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