Tag: UK

Amicus, Britain’s second largest union representing 15,000 managers and staff working for Royal Mail and other postal operators, will issue a wake-up call for action to be taken to protect the future of high street post offices when it meets backbench MPs in the House of Commons today. Amicus recognises that high street post offices are an essential community service that must be preserved at all costs. Peter Skyte, Amicus National Officer, said: “Without further action by Government and the public, this will be the last post for Britain’s high street post office network as it faces death by a thousand cuts. Royal Mail is selling off or closing an essential community service in a piecemeal fashion which will lead to greater financial and social exclusion.”

Royal Mail will this week announce that it is on course to reach its profit target of GBP400m for the current financial year, having generated profits of about GBP200m in the six months ending September 30. Last year, Royal Mail made an operating profit of GBP220m, compared with a GBP197m loss in the 2002-03 financial year. The turnround has been achieved through cost-cutting, including 30,000 redundancies, as well as a rise in the price of stamps. If the GBP400m profit figure is reached for the 12 months ending March 31 2005, the state-owned company has promised to pay out GBP200m in bonuses to its employees.