Parliamentary briefing on Post Office Campaign/Pay Dispute

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Speech: Parliamentary briefing on Post Office Campaign and Pay Dispute

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Management’s policy on franchising and closure is short-sighted. There is no attempt to further develop the network. A reduction of costs appears to be the only aim, regardless of the network’s potential.

The Coalition Government’s policy is equally bad, as they have directed Post Office management, in short order, to end the losses in Crown Offices.

This policy assumes that there can be no real expansion of products and services delivered through Crown Offices. Rather than increased income, the policy simply looks to reduce expenditure. It is so one-sided it has to be wrong.

The logic being currently applied will, if continued, lead to the franchising or closure of all the Crown Offices. More and more this policy towards the Post Office, and the proposed privatisation of Royal Mail, resembles asset stripping of our national resources.

Yet the Crown Offices transact 20 percent of all Post Office business – with 4 million customers being served each week the potential is enormous.

What rational can there be for dismissing the interests of 4 million customers? These offices’ great potential is simply being written off, while service provision is being levelled down.

The Post Office branch is vital for the local community. Once a local Post Office branch is closed or downgraded then there is a knock-on effect to other shops and services.

The Government should be using the Crown Offices as a front office for government services. Increasing access to local and national government is essential if the government wants to deliver on its own “localism” agenda. All that is required is a commitment to investment and training in the Crown Offices and the network.

Another important area being overlooked is the expansion of financial services. At present the Crown Offices handle 40% of Post Office financial services sales.

If the government was simply to support the launch of a Postbank, we could see the whole network become profitable. Isn’t it better to end the subsidy by increasing turnover and profitability, rather than just concentrate on cost reductions?

Inevitably such reductions fall most heavily on Post Office workers. 1,500 job losses are unacceptable, and a three-year pay freeze equally so. Post Office workers cannot be expected to bear the burden of a failing policy.

The strike action undertaken by Crown Office workers is a defence of their conditions, and rightly so. But it is also a defence of the future of service provision for Post Office customers – even if management have abandoned that task.

However Post Office management dresses things up, fact is that their policy will result in a further decline for the Post Office network. There is no way that a service can be simply cut to success. It has to be grown out of subsidy.

It is clear that this dispute is a major turning point for CWU members in the Crown Offices. The national union will do everything it can to support these workers. But we know that have there is also great public support. If we keep our unity and our campaigning, we will win.