This week the Postal Executive has further considered the implications of the company’s announcement to impose a group wide pay freeze. Therefore, the purpose of this LTB is to set out a more detailed response from the Union.
The Union accepts that the recession will impact negatively on work volumes. However, we still believe the overall commercial position of the Royal Mail Group proves the company are in a far better shape than they make out and that they can afford to improve the terms and conditions of our members across all businesses.
The Postal Executive believes the company’s decision to impose a pay freeze is politically motivated.
It suit’s the company’s underlying policy to transform the whole culture of reward and remuneration away from the traditional Union bargaining agenda, towards things like Colleague Share and lump sums, which are offered as rewards for achieving financial targets. Part of this policy is to enforce the principle that employees should not be rewarded for major change.
It also suit’s Royal Mail in the current political climate and their relationship with Government. There is no doubt that Board members are feeling vulnerable as a result of the severe criticisms levelled at them from both Hooper and the Government. The reality is the people leading the business are in limbo waiting for the outcome of the Government debate to determine their fate.
In these circumstances, Royal Mail’s Directors are taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the Government’s proposals and are trying to show that they can take tough decisions and drive through change. It is also likely that they are doing the Government’s bidding and creating the environment for privatisation.
In response the Postal Executive have agreed we must be consistent in making it clear to all senior managers across the company that the pay freeze is neither justified nor acceptable to the Union in any of the businesses.
The Union’s position will be communicated directly to our members’ home addresses and we will focus on explaining the reasons why the company can afford to improve our members’ terms and conditions in all businesses.
The Postal Executive has agreed to adopt a co-ordinated approach and will tackle the company’s position as a Postal Constituency. A meeting with the Group HR Director is being rearranged to reflect the urgency of the situation.
We will of course continue to meet the individual group businesses and attempt to clarify whether or not the pay freeze also applies to any benefits and improvements we have been seeking through our normal bargaining agenda. The outcome of these meetings will be reported to the DGS (P) and discussed with the National Officers before any decisions are taken by the Postal Executive on how we move forward.
We are mindful that should there be any subsequent concessions or change in management policy the company are likely to use this to play different businesses off against each other in order to achieve the lowest overall cost scenario.
It has long been recognised that in recent times the prospect of achieving ‘no strings’ pay rises is a thing of the past. All recent deals have generally involved aspects of moving the company’s agenda forward. Therefore, the concept that our members should also now accept all major change with no real benefits is far more problematical for the Union and Royal Mail, than whether or not we receive an immediate pay rise.
Our current view is that the Board’s position is only likely to change as a result of either a deal with Government on the wider political issues or through us galvanising the support of our members in the traditional way.
The Union faces numerous problems on many different fronts and it is likely that the attacks on our members’ jobs and the company’s future plans will be upper most in our members’ thoughts. Therefore, it will be our intention to focus on explaining to our members that all these issues are linked and that it is essential over the coming weeks that we galvanise their support.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)
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