Is Rico Back rising to become Royal Mail CEO ?

[postareale]

In a post on the topic "Does moya greene need to go" there was a Re-Post by TrueBlueTerrier on Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:41 am from a Times article:

"Mr Back, a well-regarded executive who has been chief executive of Royal Mail’s consistently profitable GLS company in Europe, is being positioned to take the top job at the company amid speculation that Moya Greene, 62, the group chief executive, could call time on her six-year tenure in charge sooner rather than later."

Interestingly, there is also an article in German on this possible scenario, entitled "Steigt Rico Back auf?" in English, "Is Back Rising" found at:

http://www.dvz.de/rubriken/menschen/sin ... k-auf.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While the article is in German, thanks to Google Translate, here is an English translation:

"A restructuring of Royal Mail, which has not been publicly communicated to the public, has sparked speculation about the rise of Rico Back, head of the European parcel company GLS. As the daily newspaper "The Times" writes, the new Royal Mail Chairman, Peter Long, who came last September, is behind the restructuring and behind the announcement of an early replacement of Moya Greene as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the exchange-listed post office. Greene does not want to extend her contract expiring at the end of this year. The Canadian arrived at Royal Mail from Canada Post in 2010.

According to "The Times", the 61-year-old Back has, in addition to his GLS task, received all responsibility for the parcel business of the postal company. While GLS operates on the European mainland, the parcel business is running on the island under the name Parcelforce.

The GLS Group is based in Amsterdam. It generates profits year by year and is considered the pearl of the British postal company. How the parcel carrier ended in fiscal 2015/16, which ended last March, will be announced on 19 May. Then Royal Mail wants to present the annual figures.

Back has been at the forefront of the parcel service founded in the spring of 1989 as German Parcel. Previously, the then co-worker worked for the Unilever Group. Partners of German Parcel were initially 24 medium-sized German shipping companies. Shortly before the turn of the millennium, the joint venture was sold to the British Post for a great deal of money. This gave Royal Mail the foundation for a successful engagement in the booming parcel market and a manager well versed in the parcel business.

Even today, Germany is the most important single market of GLS. With an 8 percent market share, the parcel service is far behind the competitors DHL, Hermes, UPS and DPD. One reason for this is that, unlike DPD, GLS is reluctant to offer much less renditious B2C transport in addition to traditional B2B traffic.

According to the practices in his native city Hamburg, Back leads a low-profile professional life. He was all the more unhappy when reports by the undercover journalist Günter Wallraff tore him into the public four years ago because of allegedly bad working conditions. These allegations obviously did not hurt Back at the parent company. In London, it is a question of positioning the postal company in such a way that it profits as much as possible from the booming package business."


It would be interesting to obtain a copy of the article by undercover journalist Günter Wallraff about "allegedly bad working conditions".

Perhaps our ParcelForce and Royal Mail Parcels colleagues might report back on changes in working conditions since Rico Back assumed additional responsibilities there over a year ago. Stay tuned, more to come.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This one (also google translated)

http://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/unter ... 60810.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

GLS confronted with Wallraff own allegations

Günter Wallraffs research on low wages in the package industry encounter there with little understanding. "One-sided and shortens" was the report, the service provider GLS, in which Wallraff worked undercover. Reason for reform is not seen.
The parcel delivery GLS has rejected the charges of the investigative reporter Günter Wallraff a exploitation of messenger. It was stated that the contribution of a "one-sided and shortened reporting," the company said on Thursday. GLS obliging transport companies "to the employment of drivers in lawful, social insurance employment relationships," it said in a statement.

The company, based in Amsterdam , which is part of Germany's four largest package logisticians, "regretted" the report. Wallraff (69) had published it to searches and several undercover missions using a false identity on Mitwochabend RTL and on Thursday in the "Time Magazine" . In it, he denounces "Menschenschinderei with system" and "a form of modern slavery" in the parcel delivery company.

Mixed reaction in the industry

"The GLS group does not accept disrespectful remarks about subcontractors and their drivers in their business," replied the managing director of GLS Germany, Klaus Conrad, and Rico Back as head of the GLS Group.

In the package industry the accusations Wallraff met a mixed response. "We know the problems that the industry has here," the spokesman of Deutsche Post, Dirk Klasen said. "In the area of subcontractors, there is a tough competition." Despite many shortcomings in the industry the work of the packet network DHL is but on a "absolutely presentable level," Klasen said. In the outsourcing of jobs, ultimately, the subcontractors are responsible to reward their drivers properly.

Some begin to rethink

"In this system, something is not right," said the spokesman for the package association Hermes, Thomas Voigt, in a discussion with Wallraff at "Stern TV" on Wednesday night. Voigt announced improvements for the Hermes parcel driver. "We are fundamentally the process of restructuring the whole system at Hermes. We will abolish the pay per package and introduce an hourly wage. "The main criticism Wallraff applies GLS, but generally also the abuses in the industry. Also a former driver of Hermes has his say.

According to research by the Wallraff GLS Group works exclusively with subcontractors - mostly self-drivers or former drivers - and commit to this ruinous and inscrutable conditions. This gives the company legally steal from the responsibility. The drivers are paid low wages, it'll run exploitation and violated regularly against labor regulations, said the journalist.

[postareale]

Could we potentially look forward to these sorts of GLS work practices coming soon to the UK, (i.e. further privatisation/outsourcing of parcel deliveries/zero-hours contracts/ non-unionized staff/safety issues) at Royal Mail once/if Rico Back becomes CEO -- as has been frequently speculated on now in both the British and German media.

Here is another account of the undercover investigation at GLS that reportedly so angered Rico (again with English Google translation from the original German):

http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen ... 92248.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


DELIVERY SERVICE GLS
Wallraff, as a package messenger, discovered "modern slavery"

Date:
• May 30, 2012 8:06 pm
• Update: 31/05/2012, 12:38 hrs

Once again, Günter Wallraff crept into a company under a false name. This time the parcelist GLS was the order. There, "human trafficking with system" is operated.

The revelation journalist Günter Wallraff was once again under false identity. This time, the 69-year-old hired the GLS, a company that is active throughout Europe, and has its German headquarters in Neuenstein. There he first started as a passenger in a delivery vehicle. After several months of research and undercover work, the 69-year-old writer denounces "human trafficking with system". State controls against logistics companies would have to be introduced and sanctions imposed.

"I have worked and researched at different sites - and I have found working conditions that are physically, nervously and financially ruined," said the author on Wednesday in Düsseldorf. "It is a system that is a form of modern slavery in the middle of Germany." Several thousand people are affected, especially younger and male employees. Wallraff researched for the weekly magazine "Die Zeit" and for RTL.

"It's about precarious employment, to dumping wages from three to five euros an hour, to 14-hour stakes to total exhaustion, to unpaid overtime, to sleep deficits that can provoke accidents to harassment." Workers' laws would be clearly ignored, Breaks are hardly possible. "Manipulated data are being given to the authorities."

The unacceptable practices were carried out "with the knowledge of the group and with the system," the author emphasized. It was a form of self-esteem in which people were pushed, "who have no choice and who are just glad to get some work." The conditions are difficult to see, including the risks of accident or illness concerned.

Wallraff's accusations against GLS:

• workload
"There were often no breaks, only four or five hours of sleep at night. The accident risk is enormous. [...] It is a system that represents a form of modern slavery in the middle of Germany. "
• working equipment
" We were traveling in dented carts and snow and ice with summer tires."
• pay
"A scandal is also that the first hours are not paid at all. If the drivers pick up the parcels from the depots at 0500, take them from the tape, scan them and carry them into the wagons, they will not be paid for two, three hours. "
• contracts
" Drivers are obliged to work under difficult conditions and in often only verbal contracts as subcontractors without GLS pointing them to the entrepreneurial and financial risks. Many are exploited to the very last detail, and GLS steals himself steadily and completely from responsibility. "
• manipulation
"Manipulated data are being given to the authorities."

At the GLS-Germany headquarters in Neuenstein, the allegations of exploitation have now been rejected. It is a "one-sided and abridged reporting," the company said on Thursday after the broadcast of the TV documentary at RTL. "The GLS Group does not accept any disrespectful statements about subcontractors and their drivers in their company. We attach great importance to partnership-based cooperation, which is being developed within the framework of the law, "the opinion states. The Managing Director of GLS Germany, Klaus Conrad, and Rico Back, head of the Amsterdam-based group, "regretted" the report.

On a request from "Zeit-Magazin", GLS replied: "The transport companies are obligated, in the execution of transport orders of GLS, in principle to the employment of drivers in legally compliant employment obligations requiring social insurance."
According to Wallfraff, the company is not the only one to pay dumping wages and deliberately accept violations of labor laws. "With me, letters from many people from the lower hierarchy levels, but also from managers who want to no longer be responsible for these states, are increasing."

[postareale]

The UK postal group was forced to pay €55m (£40m) by the Autorité de la Concurrence, after its subsidiary GLS France colluded with 20 courier and shipping firms to set customer prices for a period of six years.

And of course not to forget this unfortunate bit of business at the end of 2015:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/1205 ... andal.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Royal Mail fined £40m in French price-fixing scandal

The UK postal operator has accepted its role in one of the largest price fixing cartels in French corporate history

Royal Mail warns of 'intense' competition as profits rise

The French authorities investigated for 18 months

By John Ficenec

12:50PM GMT 15 Dec 2015

Royal Mail has been hit with a landmark fine from the French competition authorities after its parcel delivery subsidiary took part in one of the largest price fixing cartels in corporate history.

The UK postal group was forced to pay €55m (£40m) by the Autorité de la Concurrence, after its subsidiary GLS France colluded with 20 courier and shipping firms to set customer prices for a period of six years.

The French investigators slammed the group with a total fine of €672m, the second largest in the organisation's 15-year history. The cartel was found to have manipulated fuel surcharges when agreeing prices for the delivery of packages and goods between 2004 and 2010.

"Roundtables were regularly organised before and during rate hike campaigns, which allowed the firms to harmonise their rate positions and secure their commercial negotiations," said the Competition Authority in a statement.

"The discussions were held in secret and no official records were made," it added.

The largest single fine of €196m was handed down to Geodis, the logistics group owned by the French state-owned rail group SNCF. Chronopost, the delivery company run by the French postal system now known as DPD France, received a fine of €99m.

International logistics groups DHL, FedEx and TNT were hit with fines of €81m, €17m and €58m respectively.

The fines concluded an 18-month investigation by the French authorities.

Royal Mail said: “Royal Mail recognises the absolute need to comply with European and national competition law and the necessity to prevent infringements. It has implemented an enhanced compliance programme in GLS France in order to strengthen the culture of competition law compliance.”

Royal Mail set aside £46m to cover any potential fines including £6m for legal costs in its results for the year to the end of March 2015.

In October, the Government sold off its final 13pc stake in Royal Mail, and gifted the remaining 1pc it owned to postal service employees."
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