Post Office staff vote for a sales 'ban' on banking products

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Thousands of furious Post Office staff have voted to stop pro-actively selling lucrative insurance products, current accounts and credit cards in protest at branch closures and 1,500 planned job cuts.

Union chiefs revealed yesterday that 90 per cent of Crown post offices workers had backed action "short of a strike" that threatens to cost the Post Office millions of pounds of lost sales.

The sales "ban" follows a series of walkouts by staff across the 372 post offices in the Crown network. The Post Office makes an estimated £281 million a year in revenue from financial services products across the near 12,000 post offices across the country, through a venture with Bank of Ireland.

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, blasted: "This ballot results sends another strong message to Post Office management that their staff completely disagree with their business plan and will not be trampled on.

"A sales ban will hit an integral part of the Post Office's business plan and hopefully focus minds to resolve this dispute."
He added: "This strong ballot result - especially during summer holidays and after five months of dispute - is an amazing demonstration of how strong the workforce is united in this dispute. We want to resolve it, but management must take their heads out of the sand."

The CWU said that if a customer comes into a branch and specifically asks for a banking product, they would still be able to get one. But it claimed most of its members are told to pro-actively sell them when customers walk through the door, alleging that each sale contributes to the bonsues of the management.

Mr Ward said: "We are concerned that sales targets are over ambitious and could lead to hard sell tactics which would be at odds with the Post Office brand."

The unions are upset that the Post Office wants to close or franchise 75 of the network's 372 Crown offices, cut 1,500 jobs and freeze pay.

The Post Office said financial services products were key to turning around the Crown network, which loses £37 million a year. A spokesman said: "We are very disappointed that the CWU has chosen to take this step.
"We must continue with our plans to turn around the Crown network to ensure we keep these branches on high streets and in city centres around the UK. We remain open to discussions with the CWU on pay options which do not add to the current loss of public money."

The Post Office launched a range of new current accounts in May through its tie-up with the Bank of Ireland. The move was challenged by watchdogs given anger at the Bank of Ireland's decision to dramatically increase mortgage rates on tracker loans for 13,500 UK customers just two weeks before.