Royal Mail Group Negotiations – Update for CWU Members

[DryPop]

Saw this posted in my depot today... confirms that equalisation will be over 4 years.... Still no actual idea which things get sorted first. Will it take into account how long you've worked for RM? I'm coming up to 2 years & having to endure another 4 years just to get paid what I should be getting paid anyway will sting.

The communications union

National talks update and new entrants 2025

RMG and the CWU are both committed to reaching a full agreement on Pay, the equalisation pathway for new entrants, and the other parts of Section 5, which are part of the EP agreement.

Section 5 covers:

New resourcing model

Equalising new entrants pay, terms and conditions

Reducing reliance of agency workers

Review of scheduled attendance and overtime rates

Pay deal

Performance incentive scheme

Sick Pay arrangements

Review of VR terms

Resetting industrial relations

USO reform

Both parties will continue talks this week.

Majority of current board will leave imminently then new owners take up their

positions.

First EP board meeting was on the 9th June.

2 CWU priorities are an above inflation pay deal and levelling up new entrants terms.

CWU are negotiating Paid meal breaks for new entrants- this is a £71m cost to the business.

The CWU are working to equalise new entrants into the CDC pension scheme from the nest pension.

CWU say nothing is agreed until everything is agreed!

The business has committed to honour the no compulsory redundancy commitment

throughout USO implementation and deployment which is expected to conclude in

2028, and provide employee benefits.

CWU are looking to remove absorption.

CWU have rejected 3 separate above inflation pay offers.

One pay offer was a 3 year deal at a cost of £873m to the business.

CWU: want to Level up new entrants over 4 years, wanted to do it earlier but had to

balance this alongside a pay offer as it will come out of the pay pot.

The levelling up on new entrant pay and T's & C's would see equivalent 22% pay rise

over 4 years including paid breaks.

A 40 hour new entrant currently Works 43 hours 20 minutes with no paid break.

A full time new entrant would work 34 hour 20minutes with paid meal breaks.

RMG confirms that the USO change will only be deployed if a decision has been

made by Ofcom and a full National Agreement is in place with the CWU.

A full National Agreement on USO should be concluded ASAP

Agreed process for better involvement and release for your local rep which will be agreed regionally and alongside myself (as ADR) and OPL.

USO, it has been agreed that for larger Delivery Offices, where there is more than one COM/Section, then an attendance pattern can be selected independently in ea

Section.

However the principle will remain that there will be ONE predominant attendance pattern, covering the vast majority of duties, per COM/Section.

CWU have said that any vote on duty patterns will be a CWU member vote only!

Only The CWU can deliver this agreement

[GRS]

Why is it they feel the need to tell us how much certain things cost the business? ie: paid meal relief is a cost of X amount to the business or a pay deal was put forward at a cost of X to the business.
I actually don’t give two sh***s how much something is costing the busines, not until they tell us how much Senior Management & non productive staff are costing us.

[wandle]

It’s been suggested that Kretinskyy went for a full takeover so that he could squeeze-out minor shareholders including Rico Back, who still held a stake in IDS and tried to ring-fence the GLS part of the group??

If he just wanted GLS then why's he messing about trying to force though ODM at RM as soon as the sales gone through? Personally I feel GLS' value has been overblown, when it's a tiny delivery company compared to RM Inc PF, UK coverage wise.

GLS is a big part of the entire business.
The last published annual results showed GLS made £326m profit. Royal Mail made a £348m LOSS !!
If the USo reforms go through, RM reckoned it would save at least £300m per annum, possibly more. Which would leave Kretinskyy with 2 profitable businesses which he could split, leaving him as the sole owner of GLS

IMG_3586.jpeg

[TopperGas]

It’s been suggested that Kretinskyy went for a full takeover so that he could squeeze-out minor shareholders including Rico Back, who still held a stake in IDS and tried to ring-fence the GLS part of the group??

If he just wanted GLS then why's he messing about trying to force though ODM at RM as soon as the sales gone through? Personally I feel GLS' value has been overblown, when it's a tiny delivery company compared to RM Inc PF, UK coverage wise.

GLS is a big part of the entire business.
The last published annual results showed GLS made £326m profit. Royal Mail made a £348m LOSS !!
If the USo reforms go through, RM reckoned it would save at least £300m per annum, possibly more. Which would leave Kretinskyy with 2 profitable businesses which he could split, leaving him as the sole owner of GLS

IMG_3586.jpeg

That's assuming you believe all the figures IDS produce, what's the betting once ODM is up and running RM suddenly return to profitability?

We've no real idea what DK intends doing with RM or GLS so little point in trying to guess/scaremonger

[wandle]

It’s been suggested that Kretinskyy went for a full takeover so that he could squeeze-out minor shareholders including Rico Back, who still held a stake in IDS and tried to ring-fence the GLS part of the group??

If he just wanted GLS then why's he messing about trying to force though ODM at RM as soon as the sales gone through? Personally I feel GLS' value has been overblown, when it's a tiny delivery company compared to RM Inc PF, UK coverage wise.

GLS is a big part of the entire business.
The last published annual results showed GLS made £326m profit. Royal Mail made a £348m LOSS !!
If the USo reforms go through, RM reckoned it would save at least £300m per annum, possibly more. Which would leave Kretinskyy with 2 profitable businesses which he could split, leaving him as the sole owner of GLS

IMG_3586.jpeg

That's assuming you believe all the figures IDS produce, what's the betting once ODM is up and running RM suddenly return to profitability?

We've no real idea what DK intends doing with RM or GLS so little point in trying to guess/scaremonger

What is ODM ?

Part of being a listed company is having to produce Quarterly figures, properly audited, and scrutinised by scores of independent financial analysts. Are you suggesting the figures aren’t real and IDS have successfully hoodwinked the entire investment community? And, by inference, one of the most savvy investors?
Many thought he eyed GLS as the prize, but who would buy the loss-making UK business? Well, if it becomes profitable, he could re-float it.
@RobertT could probably give you examples of other takeovers where part of a business has been ‘spun off’ and gained a new listing on the stock market…

[postslippete]

Why is it they feel the need to tell us how much certain things cost the business? ie: paid meal relief is a cost of X amount to the business or a pay deal was put forward at a cost of X to the business.
I actually don’t give two sh***s how much something is costing the busines, not until they tell us how much Senior Management & non productive staff are costing us.

Because it's not just information and more of a framing tactic to make us feel that what the Union are asking is unreasonable and that the business is being generous? They act like we are bankrupting the company with paid breaks while the people making the decisions are either on big salaries or already cashing in bonuses.

[postslippete]

What is ODM ?

Optimised Delivery Model - it's RM plan to move away from deliveries and focus more on parcels by restructuring duty patterns (fewer delivery days, condensed hours) and use the reduced universal service obligation as a legal framework to do it. It is designed to make the business even more profitable but also less like a public service.

[Clappedoutpostie]

The company is already back into profit after introducing overtime bans etc, don’t forget how much they have ramped up the cost of postage over the last 12 months. Saving even more on USO reform is the icing on top, I can’t believe shareholders let it go so cheap when they are swinging back to a good profit.

[Playmail]

4 years is taking the piss how they gonna keep staff no ones gonna wait that long

[wandle]

The company is already back into profit after introducing overtime bans etc, don’t forget how much they have ramped up the cost of postage over the last 12 months. Saving even more on USO reform is the icing on top, I can’t believe shareholders let it go so cheap when they are swinging back to a good profit.

IDS is back in profit, according to the half-year 2024/25 report. But the domestic Royal Mail was still making a £67m LOSS

IMG_3605.jpeg

[GRS]

It’s been suggested that Kretinskyy went for a full takeover so that he could squeeze-out minor shareholders including Rico Back, who still held a stake in IDS and tried to ring-fence the GLS part of the group??

If he just wanted GLS then why's he messing about trying to force though ODM at RM as soon as the sales gone through? Personally I feel GLS' value has been overblown, when it's a tiny delivery company compared to RM Inc PF, UK coverage wise.

GLS is a big part of the entire business.
The last published annual results showed GLS made £326m profit. Royal Mail made a £348m LOSS !!
If the USo reforms go through, RM reckoned it would save at least £300m per annum, possibly more. Which would leave Kretinskyy with 2 profitable businesses which he could split, leaving him as the sole owner of GLS

IMG_3586.jpeg

That's assuming you believe all the figures IDS produce, what's the betting once ODM is up and running RM suddenly return to profitability?

We've no real idea what DK intends doing with RM or GLS so little point in trying to guess/scaremonger

What is ODM ?

Part of being a listed company is having to produce Quarterly figures, properly audited, and scrutinised by scores of independent financial analysts. Are you suggesting the figures aren’t real and IDS have successfully hoodwinked the entire investment community? And, by inference, one of the most savvy investors?
Many thought he eyed GLS as the prize, but who would buy the loss-making UK business? Well, if it becomes profitable, he could re-float it.
@RobertT could probably give you examples of other takeovers where part of a business has been ‘spun off’ and gained a new listing on the stock market…

Sounds a bit naive to me! All businesses employ accountants to move money around and make it look like they’ve earned less than they really have. The bigger the company and more money they’re turning over the bigger and more clever accountants they work with. So many ways for these people to move money around to make it look loss making. Don’t trust auditors either, can’t remember which one (possibly Grant Thornton) was charged that not long ago with not scrutinising and auditing company accounts properly.

[Valentina@1]

I ageee,something about the numbers don’t add up,they’ve been making cuts for 3 years now.

[Ren Hoëk]

Il be shocked if they aren't turning a profit. Revenue is definitely up. We can see that with the influx of parcels and huge increase in tracked product take up. I don't care what they say about mail volumes. They have been pretty stable. Add the increase in stamp prices as well.
As far as I can see we havnt made much investment on assets so that should be fairly similar.

So, then it boils down to its expenses/liabilities. Well, energy and petrol prices have been pretty stable. Rates shouldnt have changed much. Rent? Maybe but we own most of the land we operate on so that shouldn't impact all that much. Staff costs? That should be down due to the numbers leaving, not being replaced and those that do replace them are on the new cheaper contracts.

If i was were DK looking the P&L accounts and the Statement of financial position I would see a company which is ticking over and could do better with some changes. BUT what I would notice is the Massive non current assets in land. If I could wind down one section of the business (Letters) and expand the parcels side its a double win. Improved productivity and thus profits and I sell assets as I don't need as much to operate. It's an attractive prospect for sure. If I win, I win. If I lose, I win (Assets).

This guy is no fool. We are if we believe this company looks anything like it does now in ten years time. Letters will be wound down as fast as legally possible, sell assets, reinvest to aggressively attack the market and improve market share. RM will dominate the parcel sector if its no longer shackled to its letters.

[Walter sobchak]

What’s the word then?

More talks tomorrow and planned over the weekend?

[Woody84]

4 years is taking the piss how they gonna keep staff no ones gonna wait that long

Yup, I won’t be hanging round that long.

12-18 months- Possibly linked to performance or ‘operational needs’ to be sooner

4 years is a joke.