Future of Royal Mail

[Martin Walsh]

This company is at a fork in the road, it is 9.3 billion turnover company but making virtually no profit or breaking even at best.

Companies doing this regular don’t survive in the same way going forward unless they change.

This is why the following has to happening :

USO reform has to be introduced and quality of service restored. The alternative is that we end up with the frequency reduction which is happening in other parts of Europe which will mean thousands of job losses and lead to reductions in mail centres as 3 or 4 day USO options mean that processing and transporting is no longer as time critical.

The self bogus workforce in Amazon , Evri , DHL and practically every other parcel operator must be given single status right and be classed at employed. The fact that companies are allowed not to pay a wage , national insurance, pension , holiday pay , sick pay , van costs , derv costs , uniform etc is meaning Royal Mail are either losing contracts or they are receiving less money for those contracts.


Reform of Ofcom. The USO should be supported by a levy of those companies like Amazon who will not deliver to the most costly parts of the UK.

Growth - There must be a growth strategy in place which is not just built on parcels.

Reset - The agreement states that there must be a full employee and industrial relations reset and there is a launch event next week and a lot of joint work has been done in this area.

The challenge must be to get Royal Mail back to being profitable to ensure our members share in that profit and have long term job security.

The other path is within three years when the Legal guarantees are up for review is that EP simply say we are only going to deliver the USO which accounts for 11% of all traffic by way of a skeleton workforce and all the other workload we are going to use the self bogus employment model themselves.

That is the context this agreement has to be seen against.

[carlosevenos]

Maybe they can reduce manager bonuses and pay outs to pay for this. They say they have no money, but if that were the case they wouldn't overpay managers and give out hefty bonuses all the time.
If they were also that skint, why are they still paying loads of money to coaching staff, who do nothing for their money. They should scrap that as well.

Also they are talking about hiring loads of people to make these revisions work. Surely thats a waste of money. Especially if they're trying to reduce hours/costs in office. They'll end up spending more to get this to work.

Plus the hundreds of hours overtime they put in for Ips every morning in my place. If they were that skint, they wouldn't be paying this

[TopperGas]

Surely expecting 3 posties to do 4 posties work just so a multi billionaire can make more millions, even billions, can't be the correct way for a union to behave?

The simple fact is that the UK postal service is not ready for alternative day 2c deliveries, RM should have started with dropping Saturday 2c mail then moving to further cuts as mail reduced.

[Valentina@1]

This company is at a fork in the road, it is 9.3 billion turnover company but making virtually no profit or breaking even at best.

Companies doing this regular don’t survive in the same way going forward unless they change.

This is why the following has to happening :

USO reform has to be introduced and quality of service restored. The alternative is that we end up with the frequency reduction which is happening in other parts of Europe which will mean thousands of job losses and lead to reductions in mail centres as 3 or 4 day USO options mean that processing and transporting is no longer as time critical.

The self bogus workforce in Amazon , Evri , DHL and practically every other parcel operator must be given single status right and be classed at employed. The fact that companies are allowed not to pay a wage , national insurance, pension , holiday pay , sick pay , van costs , derv costs , uniform etc is meaning Royal Mail are either losing contracts or they are receiving less money for those contracts.


Reform of Ofcom. The USO should be supported by a levy of those companies like Amazon who will not deliver to the most costly parts of the UK.

Growth - There must be a growth strategy in place which is not just built on parcels.

Reset - The agreement states that there must be a full employee and industrial relations reset and there is a launch event next week and a lot of joint work has been done in this area.

The challenge must be to get Royal Mail back to being profitable to ensure our members share in that profit and have long term job security.

The other path is within three years when the Legal guarantees are up for review is that EP simply say we are only going to deliver the USO which accounts for 11% of all traffic by way of a skeleton workforce and all the other workload we are going to use the self bogus employment model themselves.

That is the context this agreement has to be seen against.

I feel like you spend more time defending company than the members that actually pay your wages,can’t actually belive how bad CWU has become,40 years a member,feel sick to stomach

[scotchy1962]

I can remember something very similar, if not the same, being said by the union in the last dispute. I can only think you have learned nothing since then
Basically you are saying the company isn't profitable and it's all your fault.
Methinks you are forgetting who you represent and who pays your wages, do you not think they deserve better than someone who sounds like they represent the companies interests and not their own.
All the problems within RM can't be laid at the workers door, at some stage the company have to be held to account.
If this company isn't profitable what makes you think working your members into the ground will help?
If this company isn't profitable do you not think the problem isn't your members?
That stone you are trying to get blood out of has no more to give perhaps.
If the real problem is the USO and you want rid of it completely, take it up with the government.
I for one don't believe RM when they say there's no profit, i think there is and i think all they want is even more and you are aiding them.

[Valentina@1]

I can remember something very similar, if not the same, being said by the union in the last dispute. I can only think you have learned nothing since then
Basically you are saying the company isn't profitable and it's all your fault.
Methinks you are forgetting who you represent and who pays your wages, do you not think they deserve better than someone who sounds like they represent the companies interests and not their own.
All the problems within RM can't be laid at the workers door, at some stage the company have to be held to account.
If this company isn't profitable what makes you think working your members into the ground will help?
If this company isn't profitable do you not think the problem isn't your members?
That stone you are trying to get blood out of has no more to give perhaps.
If the real problem is the USO and you want rid of it completely, take it up with the government.
I for one don't believe RM when they say there's no profit, i think there is and i think all they want is even more and you are aiding them.

Well said

[Valentina@1]

Martin….members want to know what’s happening with the 1.7billion pension surplus?
Basically radio silence on this
May as well just let DK have it,you’ve basically giving everything else to him

[Martin Walsh]

The Pension Surplus is protected fully by Government and Trustees.

Remember the pension surplus would still there if everyone retired tomorrow and got their full pay out.

The pension trustees will decide when they believe it is safe and it is often at the point when they sell it onto an insurance company to administer.

We do not expect this is happen until 2028 at the earliest. When it does then the CWU will get a share of this to go into the employee benefit fund to use to benefit employees which include helping quicken any equalisation pathway or bring the pension age of the new scheme down from 67.

[claretandblue]

The Pension Surplus is protected fully by Government and Trustees.

Remember the pension surplus would still there if everyone retired tomorrow and got their full pay out.

The pension trustees will decide when they believe it is safe and it is often at the point when they sell it onto an insurance company to administer.

We do not expect this is happen until 2028 at the earliest. When it does then the CWU will get a share of this to go into the employee benefit fund to use to benefit employees which include helping quicken any equalisation pathway or bring the pension age of the new scheme down from 67.

That money should only be given to members of that scheme.

[Neverwasadoor]

The pension surplus of any particular pot should only go to people that have paid into that specific pot in my opinion.

[Philbag70]

9.3 billion turnover and no profit?
Utter nonsense.
Either Kretinsky and the RM hierarchy are completely financially incompetent ( unlikely) or they're dishonest, deceitful charlatans ( very likely )
Either way, nobody at the top of this once-great company should be anywhere near the levers of power.

[Valentina@1]

Did I just hear right?Using pension surplus to quicken equalisation….jesus,” I prefer not to speak”

[thefox]

The pension surplus of any particular pot should only go to people that have paid into that specific pot in my opinion.

To right it should.

[blackrose23]

This company is at a fork in the road, it is 9.3 billion turnover company but making virtually no profit or breaking even at best.

Companies doing this regular don’t survive in the same way going forward unless they change.

This is why the following has to happening :

USO reform has to be introduced and quality of service restored. The alternative is that we end up with the frequency reduction which is happening in other parts of Europe which will mean thousands of job losses and lead to reductions in mail centres as 3 or 4 day USO options mean that processing and transporting is no longer as time critical.

The self bogus workforce in Amazon , Evri , DHL and practically every other parcel operator must be given single status right and be classed at employed. The fact that companies are allowed not to pay a wage , national insurance, pension , holiday pay , sick pay , van costs , derv costs , uniform etc is meaning Royal Mail are either losing contracts or they are receiving less money for those contracts.


Reform of Ofcom. The USO should be supported by a levy of those companies like Amazon who will not deliver to the most costly parts of the UK.

Growth - There must be a growth strategy in place which is not just built on parcels.

Reset - The agreement states that there must be a full employee and industrial relations reset and there is a launch event next week and a lot of joint work has been done in this area.

The challenge must be to get Royal Mail back to being profitable to ensure our members share in that profit and have long term job security.

The other path is within three years when the Legal guarantees are up for review is that EP simply say we are only going to deliver the USO which accounts for 11% of all traffic by way of a skeleton workforce and all the other workload we are going to use the self bogus employment model themselves.

That is the context this agreement has to be seen against.

The challenge to get Royal Mail profitable is Kretinsky’s problem, not the ground level staff. Kretinsky is a criminal who made his money through dodgy deals with Russia, he also bought Royal Mail with debt. Kretinsky promised equalisation, he has now proved beyond any doubt that he will never equalise the new contracts, severely damaging any trust staff had in him. I work in a big DO, several months ago a smaller office was moved into ours so that Kretinsky could sell off the smaller offices real estate. Kretinsky is also forcing 33 percent more work on already overworked staff and you think this is acceptable?

DM26 is destined to fail, so is ODM. The fact that the CWU has backed either of these delivery models proves that they are failing the very people who pay their wages. I was embarrassed watching Martin and Dave in parliament, not only did you seem incompetent, you completely failed to tell parliament the truth about Kretinsky. You blamed Royal Mails problems on the previous owner, what you should have said is that the previous owners were bad, but Kretinsky is even worse and we are going to need the government to get us out of the mess he has created. You failed to get the voice of your members heard. You clearly don’t know how to use the unions power, or we would never be in the position we find ourselves in.

Staff are now so angry with broken promises on equalisation and the ridiculous amount of extra work. The evidence I have seen in my DO so far is that workers start doing the bare minimum and working to rule when the workload is completely unachievable, which is understandable.

Going forward I have no confidence in Dave and Martin and as a member of the CWU I would like them removed immediately and will be speaking to other CWU members to get the ball rolling on this. Dave and Martin are supposed to represent the CWU members, not be Kretinsky’s puppets.

[77SAMPOST77]

This self bogus employment model you speak of Martin already exists in Parcelforce under the watchful eye of the CWU ,

Its now on about 30% at my depot , can we assume that as you are against this model the CWU will take Parcelforce to task and get all owner drivers removed .