Royal Mail boss in pledge to staff after strike action

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/royal ... 01108.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



The boss of Royal Mail has assured staff their pay and conditions will not be changed without their agreement following privatisation after a leading union threatened strike action.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it would ballot its members over industrial action unless a "legally binding" agreement on workers' conditions could be secured with any potential new owner, as Business Secretary Vince Cable announced details of the controversial £3 billion sell-off.

It followed a protest at the Royal Mail headquarters in central London where about 50 campaigners from the union, which has fiercely opposed the privatisation plans, gathered to voice opposition to the Government's proposal.

Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene has promised to create a contract with the CWU to ensure that workers' pay and conditions cannot be altered without the union's backing.

But CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the union had already rejected "minimal protections" from the company and has had no formal response to a request for protections lasting 10 years.

Ms Greene said: "As we move into the private sector, the current legal position is that all terms and conditions that apply to Royal Mail employees would remain in place, on the same basis.

"To provide further reassurance, we will create a legally-binding and enforceable contract with the CWU. Pay and protections could not be changed for the period of the contract without CWU agreement."

Mr Ward said: "We've already rejected minimal protections from the company which were completely inadequate. We sent clear proposals on protections we would like - lasting 10 years - and have had no formal response from the company."

Campaigners from the CWU, which represents about two-thirds of Royal Mail's 150,000 workforce, arrived at the Royal Mail headquarters in an open-top bus to deliver a large-scale postcard setting out their arguments against privatisation.

Speaking outside the building, Mr Ward said: "We will be balloting for strike action, we've already adopted that policy.

"I expect that policy to be ratified by the conference of the union at the end of July.

"That's about our members' terms and conditions, I want to make that clear. It's about what we fear will happen with Royal Mail as a private operator.

"What we want is a legal binding agreement that protects their terms and conditions, their contracts of employment, their pensions, for the foreseeable future.

"We will be balloting if we can't get the right agreement for the future."

Mr Ward said Royal Mail workers were "too long in the tooth" to be enticed by ministers' plans to allocate 10% of the new company for free or at a steep discount to staff, meaning each individual could receive a windfall of up to £2,000.

"I don't think our members will be bought off by the free share issue," he said.

"I believe our members are too long in the tooth not to know the dangers of privatisation."

Campaigners from the CWU travelled across London by bus as part of a week-long protest against the privatisation plans.

Their route included the headquarters of banks said to be involved in the sale arrangements - UBS, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch - the London Stock Exchange, the Department for Business, Ofcom and coalition parties' offices.

Mr Ward said it was "simply not true" that Royal Mail could not survive without being privatised.

"I really do not understand what the Government are trying to achieve by this," he said.

"If you think about the profits the Royal Mail are now making, there's no need for it to be privatised.

"What privatisation will do is destroy the UK's universal postal service.

"There's no way private companies can maintain six-day-a-week deliveries to every single address in the UK."

Fellow unions have voiced their opposition to the privatisation plans.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) said the Government was taking an "utterly reckless gamble" with the future of the post office network by going ahead with plans to sell Royal Mail.

NFSP general secretary George Thomson said: "Our post offices are already facing a highly precarious future.

"If privatisation goes ahead, we have very real fears that the Royal Mail will rip up its current agreement with Post Office Ltd in an aggressive bid to maximise profits for its shareholders.

"Subpostmasters, who are already experiencing collapsing incomes and rising operating costs, will simply not be able to continue to run their post offices.

"The thousands of businesses and communities across the UK which depend on their local post office to provide essential services will suffer as a direct result."

Unite, which represents more than 7,000 Royal Mail managers, described the planned sell-off as "daylight robbery".

Unite national officer Ian Tonks said: "The Government is doing what even Margaret Thatcher didn't dare and selling off the Queen's head to pay for George Osborne's economic failure.

"Claims that privatisation is the only way the business can access private capital are bogus. This move is bad for business and bad for customers and could lead to rising prices and an end to the universal postal service which so many communities rely on."

He added: "Any cuts to the pension scheme to fatten the company up for privatisation will not be tolerated by Unite or our members."

[subbie]

Fellow unions have voiced their opposition to the privatisation plans.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) said the Government was taking an "utterly reckless gamble" with the future of the post office network by going ahead with plans to sell Royal Mail.

NFSP general secretary George Thomson said: "Our post offices are already facing a highly precarious future.

"If privatisation goes ahead, we have very real fears that the Royal Mail will rip up its current agreement with Post Office Ltd in an aggressive bid to maximise profits for its shareholders.

"Subpostmasters, who are already experiencing collapsing incomes and rising operating costs, will simply not be able to continue to run their post offices.

"The thousands of businesses and communities across the UK which depend on their local post office to provide essential services will suffer as a direct result."


What a hypocritical tosser, Thomson fully supported the Privatisation of the Royal Mail and actively campaigned to see that it was privatised.

Subbie

[RTP]

WTF are you signing all your posts subbie?

[fishtank]

Fellow unions

The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP)

[joe379]

Seems as though ward wants a strike and doesn't want to talk at all. Always feel as though we're being used as pawns in a political battle. Would be nice if we were told what the strings were in full. We have had no meetings, no briefings, union has told us nothing. A quick q&a would have been handy.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We have had no meetings, no briefings, union has told us nothing. A quick q&a would have been handy.

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=53675" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[UnhappyGremlin]

How can RM, and Moya Greene, suggest that they are willing to enter into a legally binding deal to protect our T&C's and pay etc.?
Even if they do, it won't stop any new owner from refusing to honour it.

[k979aaa]

How can RM, and Moya Greene, suggest that they are willing to enter into a legally binding deal to protect our T&C's and pay etc.?
Even if they do, it won't stop any new owner from refusing to honour it.

Well said.

[123456]

moya can say that, and if the legally binding deal is produced in a correct legal manner it will be just that.but the union have there own worries and agenda,that document that moya is suggesting will be written as a legally binding contract of ring fencing t & c could well be offered as being good enough,but only and i mean only when the top table of the c.w.u have got there way on other issues..this is the unions last chance for any sort of victory,as and when this company gets privatised it will eat this unions legal representation for breakfast...