Tag: UK

Royal Mail wants to offer shares to its employees as part of a drive to broaden the organisation’s ownership in a move that has raised union fears about a potential sell-off.

Allan Leighton, the chairman, said yesterday that he wants to change Royal Mail’s ownership in the next stage of the development of the group, which has just moved into profit. Although he emphasised that a new structure would be dominated by employee ownership, he also gave warning that the famous Warwick agreement between unions and Labour, which includes a pledge that Royal Mail would remain in public ownership, is not binding on the company.

In an interview with The Times he said: “I am determined to get more ownership in some way or form into the hands of our people. I want a broader ownership but that must be dominated by the employees.”

Royal Mail has reshuffled its board of directors ahead of an intensification of competition in the UK postal market.

The state-owned group has appointed Lady Margaret Prosser, a Labour peer and prominent trade unionist, as a non-executive director.

Meanwhile, Elmar Toime, executive deputy chairman, will leave the company and the board shortly “to pursue opportunities as a consultant to the international postal sector”, Royal Mail said.

He was demoted in May when Adam Crozier, chief executive, took over Mr Toime’s day-to-day responsibility for the letters business following widespread criticism of reliability.