LTB:Ofcom Publish Research on Customer Needs

[POSTMAN]

Letter to Branches

No. 781/12 Date: 16h October 2012

To: All Branches with Postal Members

Dear Colleague

Ofcom Publish Research on Customer Needs

We can advise Branches that the regulatory body Ofcom has released today a major piece of research work on the needs of the users of UK postal services.

Amongst other things, we understand the research considered whether or not users still require a six day Universal Service and whether or not there is still a requirement for both a first and second class service.

In releasing this work Ofcom has now invited a stakeholder consultation on the findings, which we understand will culminate with the publication of an Ofcom report and associated recommendations in March 2013. In due course the Union will be responding in detail to this latest Ofcom consultation. We will also publish, later today, a full copy of the Ofcom report on our website for Branches to download.

In the meantime, it is essential that Branches continue to raise the profile of these issues with our representatives and members by utilising the information that has recently been sent out in LTB 725/12.

Alongside their encouragement of End to End competition, Ofcom’s latest announcement is further evidence that the marketisation and privatisation of UK postal services will ultimately lead to the Universal Service becoming unsustainable. Furthermore, the growing pressures that are emanating from unfair competition are also likely to be used by employers to create a race to the bottom culture for jobs, terms and conditions across the UK postal industry.

As reported in LTB 752/12 the Union will also be considering how we integrate the threat posed by competition into our campaign against privatisation. As part of this we are looking at a range of potential actions that will help us defend the Universal Service and protect our members’ job, terms and conditions.

Please find attached to this LTB a copy of our press release in response to the announcement by Ofcom. Further information will be sent out in due course.

Any enquiries on the above LTB should be addressed to the DGS (P) Department.

Yours sincerely


Dave Ward Billy Hayes
Deputy General Secretary (P) General Secretary

16th October 2012

For immediate release

Ofcom response must serve consumer needs, says CWU

Responding to the publication of postal regulator Ofcom’s research into consumer perspectives today (Tuesday), the Communication Workers Union is keen to ensure this does not open the door to a lowering of service standards. The union is concerned about how the Universal Service Obligation (the six days a week collection and delivery service on a one-price-goes-anywhere basis) will fare beyond this parliament and argues that it is central to maintaining service standards for consumers.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: “The ink is not even dry on the USO, having been enshrined in the Postal Services Act only last year.

“This research clearly shows the value that people put on the post and highlights growth areas for consumers who predict they will increasingly rely on postal services for the delivery of parcels and online purchases. We want to see innovation not cuts in order to maintain and improve service standards.”

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: “We want to see the needs of mail consumers and those who work in the industry put at the heart of the response to this research. We’re very concerned at what we’ve seen in other countries, where in the Netherlands for example TNT is lobbying for minimum services standards of three days a week. This approach would be bad for customers and for jobs.

“We want quality, trusted postal services which serve the needs of consumers and reward people working in the industry. The USO is a vital plank protecting service standards and should be recognised as such.”

CWU will be making a full considered response to the research in due course.

CWU is the largest trade union in the postal industry with over 200,000 members in post, telecoms and financial services, and with members in Royal Mail, Parcelforce, UK Mail and the Post Office.

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[dvbuk55]

Go on then who said the six day week was the first line of attack? Not only will it cost jobs but the much vaunted 75/25 split, which has still not been resolved as far as I know.