Royal Mail critics demand changes at top

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail critics demand changes at top as Mandelson eyes sell-off

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/bu ... 4811967.jp

By Nathalie Thomas
CALLS are growing for a change in leadership at Royal Mail as unions and backbench MPs fight to keep it in public hands.
Unions are pointing the finger of blame at Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier and chairman Allan Leighton for the dismal state of the postal service, which is now at risk of part-privatisation.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which is threatening to split from the Labour party if Business Secretary Peter Mandelson forges ahead with privatisation plans, said Royal Mail's failures are down to poor leadership. It insists the service, which posted an operating loss of £3m for its letters business last year, can be turned round through internal modernisation and cost-cutting exercises without going to the private sector for cash injections. The union is backed by the SNP, which warned that rural locations in the Highlands and Islands could be the first victims of private sector involvement.

It is expected the Government will face a backbench rebellion in the new year after former Ofcom deputy chairman Richard Hooper recommended in a report on Tuesday that the Royal Mail be allowed to form a "strategic partnership" with a private sector operator.

TNT Post, the Dutch postal giant, has already approached the Government about acquiring a stake of as much as 33%. CVC, the venture capital group which holds stakes in both the Danish and Belgian postal services, is also thought likely to step forward. It is understood the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is currently considering pitches from investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, to advise it on the deal.

In his report, Hooper said the Royal Mail in its current form is "untenable" and the service would be forced to seek emergency help from the Government without radical and swift policy changes. That would result in a restructuring under European rules, which Hooper described as a "costly and poor" outcome for customers, employees and the taxpayer.

Hooper and the Government insist private sector involvement would only be in the form of a "strategic minority partnership", but unions and backbench MPs have denounced the move as a first step towards full privatisation. They say it is madness that the Government is considering privatisation at a time when it is having to bail out other failed private sector-run industries.

Sîan Jones, spokeswoman for the CWU, said: "You modernise, you can get investment from within the company. There are lots of ways of doing that."

She questioned how Leighton and Crozier have spent a £3.9bn investment from the Government last year, which was intended to modernise part of the sorting system.

As Hooper pointed out in his review, British postmen and women still sort letters on their round in order of house number and street by hand. In Europe, 85% of this is automated to save time and money. Jones said the CWU has repeatedly questioned Royal Mail's management about why that technology hasn't materialised, but has received little response. "Leighton and Cozier have been very damaging to the service," Jones added.

Leighton, who joined Royal Mail in 2002, is due to step down early next year, but unions and rebel MPs are also pushing for Crozier's departure.

Mike Weir, postal spokesman for the SNP, said: "I have no faith in the current senior management. They seem to have pursued a particular style of confrontational management. Really there needs to be a change at the top to give Royal Mail a new direction as a public company.

"There are particular problems in Scotland because of our geography. Businesses in the Highlands and Islands rely on the Royal Mail. They don't have access to alternative carriers. When we are trying to get businesses going in a lot of these areas, this is not the way to go."

Backbench MPs have already begun masterminding a full-scale rebellion for the new year, when Mandelson is set to deliver a full statement on the Government's position. Last week Jim McGovern, parliamentary private secretary to Post Office minister Pat McFadden, resigned over the part-privatisation plans, while former Cabinet minister Peter Hain accused the Government of reneging on a manifesto pledge to keep the Royal Mail in public hands.

But the postal regulator PostComm has backed Hooper's proposals. Nigel Stapleton, chairman of PostComm, also recommended in a report in May that the Royal Mail should be allowed to raise external capital.

Tom Miers, an independent consultant, said part-privatisation will improve services for customers and increase profitability if it is done correctly. "Like we don't have one state monopoly supermarket, we shouldn't have one state monopoly mail service," he said.

[dvbuk55]

Where on earth were these people when the report was going on and before - we have suffered a decade of abysmal management, poor planning, lack of investment, a poorer quality of service and poor pay and working conditions.

It strikes me that these are crocodile tears from some and a vote catcher in the next election for others - too little too late and shame on them.

[DGP1]

Tom Miers, an independent consultant, said part-privatisation will improve services for customers and increase profitability if it is done correctly. "Like we don't have one state monopoly supermarket, we shouldn't have one state monopoly mail service," he said.

I thought that's what they said about opening up the postal market to competition

[Tall Guy]

Where on earth were these people when the report was going on and before - we have suffered a decade of abysmal management, poor planning, lack of investment, a poorer quality of service and poor pay and working conditions.

It strikes me that these are crocodile tears from some and a vote catcher in the next election for others - too little too late and shame on them.

I don't think the bit about poor pay and conditions is true. If you look at what happened after Adam and Alan joined, since then posties have had the highest pay rises of any group of workers in UK industry (apart from stockbrokers of course!!) I can't remember what the pay rate was 10 years ago, but people had to work masses of overtime to get anywhere a living wage, and that simply isn't true any more.

The current management has spent 10 years trying to invest in the business, and trying to get the union to accept that investment and accept the payback that this must bring.

For what it's worth, i do think it's time for a change at the top, not becasue they have a done a bad job, but because the personalities have now become the issue and probably time for a freshening up of the approach. I think that applies to company and union.

[fmrPOSTIE]

I'm sick to the back-teeth of Crozier and Leighton to be honest. They should both go. Never like Leighton's bulshy no nonsense attitude, he just comes across as a self-centered cock. Pay has gone up massively under these two though that's the only positive I can think of....

On the other point, does anybody actually know if Rm has spent this £3.9bn? Hooper and the PO Minister mentioned that management had not taken up all available money on offer?

I'd be interested to know.

[Tall Guy]

I'm sick to the back-teeth of Crozier and Leighton to be honest. They should both go. Never like Leighton's bulshy no nonsense attitude, he just comes across as a self-centered cock. Pay has gone up massively under these two though that's the only positive I can think of....

On the other point, does anybody actually know if Rm has spent this £3.9bn? Hooper and the PO Minister mentioned that management had not taken up all available money on offer?

I'd be interested to know.

No they haven't, they are desperate to spend it on sequencers and FSMs, and would do if they could get agreement to deploying it and reaping the benefit. What they won't do is spend the money without a framework to recoupthe investment.

[mailman71]

talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted

[DGP1]

I'm sick to the back-teeth of Crozier and Leighton to be honest. They should both go. Never like Leighton's bulshy no nonsense attitude, he just comes across as a self-centered cock. Pay has gone up massively under these two though that's the only positive I can think of....

On the other point, does anybody actually know if Rm has spent this £3.9bn? Hooper and the PO Minister mentioned that management had not taken up all available money on offer?

I'd be interested to know.

No they haven't, they are desperate to spend it on sequencers and FSMs, and would do if they could get agreement to deploying it and reaping the benefit. What they won't do is spend the money without a framework to recoupthe investment.

The reason they haven't spent the money is because they can't buy the machines, they waited and waited and waited and then thought they could just go and buy them off the shelf and must've been surprised to find that they couldn't.

[k979aaa]

I'm sick to the back-teeth of Crozier and Leighton to be honest. They should both go. Never like Leighton's bulshy no nonsense attitude, he just comes across as a self-centered cock. Pay has gone up massively under these two though that's the only positive I can think of....

On the other point, does anybody actually know if Rm has spent this £3.9bn? Hooper and the PO Minister mentioned that management had not taken up all available money on offer?

I'd be interested to know.

No they haven't, they are desperate to spend it on sequencers and FSMs, and would do if they could get agreement to deploying it and reaping the benefit. What they won't do is spend the money without a framework to recoupthe investment.

The reason they haven't spent the money is because they can't buy the machines, they waited and waited and waited and then thought they could just go and buy them off the shelf and must've been surprised to find that they couldn't.

The reason they waited was they thought they could p*ss us all off so they don't have to pay redundancy to all the staff and get partime postie's instead of fulltime postmen/women!. The two jerk's :cfo & :lfo did not have the management skill's or inclination too involve the staff in growing the service's we could have provided to the nation!.

[DGP1]

Royal Mail have a total loan facility from BERR of £1.7billion (2008 financial figures) but have only taken £500 million, so they haven't even bothered to take the money because they can't buy the machines that they need.

[dvbuk55]

Royal Mail have a total loan facility from BERR of £1.7billion (2008 financial figures) but have only taken £500 million, so they haven't even bothered to take the money because they can't buy the machines that they need.

You're quite right disgruntled, not only are they not on the shelf but they are also undergoing change - for a short period I once worked on the development of a piece of equipment which was designed to take the place of a manual operator in part, it involved the making of detonators, the machine itself was already in operation but there needed to be design changes in order for the safer use of the equipment - it took almost two years, and in reality the changes were minor - though it was to save people having their fingers blown off so the development was worthwhile.

[DGP1]

Royal Mail have a total loan facility from BERR of £1.7billion (2008 financial figures) but have only taken £500 million, so they haven't even bothered to take the money because they can't buy the machines that they need.

Looking at this again something struck me as strange, what was the £500 million for? Did we get 1/2 billion pounds worth of new equipment or did we buy new properties for the rationalisation of MCs or did the board just use it to boost the figures (and line their own pockets).

[fmrPOSTIE]

Royal Mail have a total loan facility from BERR of £1.7billion (2008 financial figures) but have only taken £500 million, so they haven't even bothered to take the money because they can't buy the machines that they need.

Looking at this again something struck me as strange, what was the £500 million for? Did we get 1/2 billion pounds worth of new equipment or did we buy new properties for the rationalisation of MCs or did the board just use it to boost the figures (and line their own pockets).

A good point. This whole privatisation saga stinks, it really does. Why cant the barstewards take the cash lump sum and get things moving, or rather - the alternative proposal should be to use this govt cash and invest rather than let TNT wreck our postal service. The only problem is, do we have confidence in the current management to do this effectively.............Nah.

[pinstripe]

I have no confidence in the leadership of RM nor the government. Their agenda is to line their own pockets at the expense of our jobs and the service we (as a company) provide. I also read (probably on here) that the government could use the £22 billion in the pension fund to plug the gaps in their spending! Something just doesn't add up, the pension deficit has doubled in the last year, so the government takes it out of the equation to induce TNT to become a 'partner', then nicks the rest of the money. I've heard of blue collar crime, but this takes it to a whole new level.

[DGP1]

I've heard of blue collar crime, but this takes it to a whole new level.

is it not white collar crime or is that when you murder a priest