Changing nature of the market poses a risk to Royal Mail, that's why we need change the way we work - Ricky McAulay

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/op ... ay-3976245

In his leader article on January 3, Andy McDonald made some interesting points in relation to the transformation of Royal Mail and the nature of our dispute with the Communication Workers Union (CWU). Mr McDonald is right to acknowledge that Royal Mail is a national institution.

The postie is part of each community in the country, delivering to every address for one fixed price.

We are proud to provide that universal service and our commitment to it is firm, even though we need reform of the obligation, from six-day letter delivery to five, to help make it financially sustainable.

Mr McDonald is also right to say that there is “risk” to Royal Mail. Where we differ is in the causes of that risk and the route to rebuilding this great business.

The risk to Royal Mail lies in the changing nature of the market in which we operate. The network and logistical operation that sits behind the postie was built decades ago to deliver letters.

But today’s customers are sending 60 per cent fewer letters than they used to. Instead, they are sending more parcels - parcels accounted for almost £6 out of every £10 of our revenue last year.


We know that customers want their parcels delivered quickly, seven-days a week, and with less impact on the environment. So, we have invested £900m over three years to meet their demands: building two parcel sorting super hubs, updating our Mail Centres to handle parcels efficiently, and investing in electric vehicles.

But this is not enough. We are operating in a highly competitive environment and to survive we need to change the way we work to deliver more parcels when customers want to receive them; often now ordered late into the evening for delivery the next day and at weekends, including Sundays.

These proposed changes are at the heart of our pay for change dispute with the CWU.

We are proud to have the best terms and conditions in our industry, and our leadership in that space is a point of difference with our gig economy competitors.

We are bringing in new recruits on different contracts, but their terms, conditions and pensions will still be the best in the industry. This is not the gig economy.

Nonetheless, we know that change can be hard and we want it to work for our employees, so we have listened carefully to colleagues and have made significant improvements to our proposals. Existing employees who are not required to work Sundays won’t have to. And we are introducing family friendly schemes to balance our need for more afternoon working with the needs of our people.

While we have been prepared to listen and amend our position throughout our negotiations with the CWU, it is vital to state that change is not optional.

Royal Mail is losing more than £1m a day, so we must change to put the business on a stable footing and secure good pay and industry-leading terms and conditions for the future.

We have always been clear with the CWU that, if they agree to the change we need, we will be able to afford the conditional pay offer, worth up to 9 per cent, that is on the table. Without change, the pay offer becomes unaffordable, and more jobs will be put at risk.

Ricky McAulay is the operations development director at Royal Mail.

[pieoftheday]

So CWU and rm to start talks again 09.01.23 but rm preempt these talks with change is not optional? Whilst I understand theres going to be change this statement comes across as we ain't budging, or am I just reading it wrong

[DirtyHarry]

Been listening to s**t like that for the best part of 20+ years.

People are, quite literally, sick and bloody tired of change.
We crave some stability in our working lives.

[yubin282]

Been listening to s**t like that for the best part of 20+ years.

People are, quite literally, sick and bloody tired of change.
We crave some stability in our working lives.

Exactly, that's all people want. Stability.

Have we changed exactly all Ive seen is the duties getting longer.

[worktotime]

so after reading this shite the company have no intentions on serious talks or even budging on what they want , so what is the point of anymore talks

[postslippete]

FFS!! Do they think that we were all born yesterday?


1. Customers might be sending 60% fewer letters than they used to. But did you forget that you put the price of postage up again last year? Also, our duties have got bigger so each one of us are actually delivering MORE bags of mail containing letters not LESS. This will only get worse with the revisions. And yes, parcels have exploded. Which is why we have made decent profits in the last few years.

2. Bringing in new recruits on inferior pay, terms and conditions spells out that Royal Mail are basically saying the current staff employed are OVERPAID. What is a 9% pay rise if sometime in the future the company have recruited enough of these staff on these inferior contracts that they then decide to offer us their contract?? The two-tier workforce is not fair to them either. You do the same job, you should get the same pay.

3. The company are still trotting the £1 million loss a day bullsh*t. Is that really our fault or the fault of the mismanagement of the Royal Mail board who make a huge profit and intend wasting it trying to break us down.

[Mr Rush]

Been listening to s**t like that for the best part of 20+ years.

People are, quite literally, sick and bloody tired of change.
We crave some stability in our working lives.

"Thus neither the moderate Right nor the moderate Left even recognises, let alone offers any solution for, the central problem of our days: the completely unprecedented personal economic insecurity of working people, from industrial workers and white-collar clerks to medium-high managers. None of them are poor and they therefore cannot benefit from the more generous welfare payments that the moderate Left is inclined to offer. Nor are they particularly envious of the rich, and they therefore tend to be uninterested in redistribution. Few of them are actually unemployed, and they are therefore unmoved by Republican/Tory promises of more growth and more jobs through the magic of the unfettered market: what they want is security in the jobs they already have – i.e. precisely what unfettered markets threaten."
Edward Luttwak, Why Fascism is the Wave of the Future (1994)

[Barnacle]

In the accounting year 2021-2022, letter volumes increased and parcel volumes decreased.

They expect parcels to increase by 40% in the next two years. That would be an increase above what occurred during lockdown.

They have thrown all the investment into parcels and completely ignored letters, our core business.

I question the efficiency of delivering parcels on a Sunday. The volumes do not justify the staffing costs plus, customers are surprised when you turn up to wake them up on their day off. Not one has said, ‘Thank God RM now deliver on a Sunday!’.

[SpacePhoenix]

In the accounting year 2021-2022, letter volumes increased and parcel volumes decreased.

They expect parcels to increase by 40% in the next two years. That would be an increase above what occurred during lockdown.

They have thrown all the investment into parcels and completely ignored letters, our core business.

I question the efficiency of delivering parcels on a Sunday. The volumes do not justify the staffing costs plus, customers are surprised when you turn up to wake them up on their day off. Not one has said, ‘Thank God RM now deliver on a Sunday!’.

Don't know where they got them figures from, we've seen a breakdown year on year comparison for the last couple of years and basically every stream has lost traffic. Don't know if it was just down to firms being shut between Xmas and New Years but the mech was way down

[moon71]

Would be refreshing an more positive to hear that Royal Mail are investing 5million/day instead of the constant 1million loss a day. Creative accounting at its best and the politics of fear are the tools of negative management.

[pieoftheday]

In the accounting year 2021-2022, letter volumes increased and parcel volumes decreased.

They expect parcels to increase by 40% in the next two years. That would be an increase above what occurred during lockdown.

They have thrown all the investment into parcels and completely ignored letters, our core business.

I question the efficiency of delivering parcels on a Sunday. The volumes do not justify the staffing costs plus, customers are surprised when you turn up to wake them up on their day off. Not one has said, ‘Thank God RM now deliver on a Sunday!’.

Don't know where they got them figures from, we've seen a breakdown year on year comparison for the last couple of years and basically every stream has lost traffic. Don't know if it was just down to firms being shut between Xmas and New Years but the mech was way down

Who's breakdown figures though? RMs?

[Barnacle]

In the accounting year 2021-2022, letter volumes increased and parcel volumes decreased.

They expect parcels to increase by 40% in the next two years. That would be an increase above what occurred during lockdown.

They have thrown all the investment into parcels and completely ignored letters, our core business.

I question the efficiency of delivering parcels on a Sunday. The volumes do not justify the staffing costs plus, customers are surprised when you turn up to wake them up on their day off. Not one has said, ‘Thank God RM now deliver on a Sunday!’.

Don't know where they got them figures from, we've seen a breakdown year on year comparison for the last couple of years and basically every stream has lost traffic. Don't know if it was just down to firms being shut between Xmas and New Years but the mech was way down

The figures were provided by UKPIL - Royal Mail Group and span financial years from 2017 to 2022.

[ennabee]

Hardly any of the 90% who were on strike in September have crossed a picket line.

Picket line well attended despite including the wettest day for years and another day the coldest.

The idea proposed by the right wing press that the strike is ideological doesn't stack up, at our plant, lots of the strikers voted for "Boris" they/we will soon be skint, strike or no strike