RMCtv :Angela Noon Chief Financial Officer : Why we pay dividends to share holders and not use the money for pay rises : Needs to sack her researcher

[POSTMAN]

OPG

I keep hearing the pay rise port is different to the dividend ports. Can you explain why lots of people are unhappy about 400 million pounds of dividends going to shareholders, and then a below inflation offer to employees.

Angela ' I should really research more before I answer questions I have no clue about' Noon : Chief Financial Officer

The first thing I'd say is the dividends are distributed to shareholders. And shareholders are obviously the owners of this company. Many of you are shareholders incidentally, which is, I think, an amazing thing. I'm a huge fan of ownership culture within an organization. And many of you that are shareholders will also have received dividends last year.

Now, the shareholders are essentially getting a distribution of group profits. And I think the first thing to point out is that this dividend was paid out on group level.

So that actually means it wasn't just Royal Mail. It was also the performance of GLS. And I'm sure each of you are aware, it is a considerable contributor to the profitability of royal mail.

So I think that's the first thing why it's very different to pay deal.

*The second thing I'd say is, we haven't always paid dividends historically, and there's been different reasons for that.

A company can decide not to pay different dividend, it's actually at the discretion of the board, which is another reason why it's quite a different topic. And it's usually to do with either performance or a capital allocation policy.

*And we haven't historically paid dividends some years because of either performance or simply because we've agreed to redeploy profit into the business.

And so what you'll see is, we're actually putting money back into building things like real estate locations, we might be using money for EV fleet or even our general fleet.

The things that you're PDAs technology, IT infrastructure.

So it's constantly about making sure the business is innovative and is becoming better and stronger.

And a lot of the times we're actually telling the shareholders that that's what we're intending to do is to redeploy capital back into the company.

You see this a lot with companies like Amazon, they haven't, they didn't pay a dividend for many, many, many years, whilst they built the business and invested back into the company, which ultimately helps not just the shareholders, but also the employees.

So that's an important distinction there.

Let me talk a little bit, however, about the pay deal, and why it's quite different to dividends.

I just mentioned dividend is at the discretion of the board. *And we don't always pay dividends. It's important actually, that we're an attractive investment.

So it was a positive thing that we paid a dividend, pay awards, on the other hand, are our you know, it's something where the company is committing to a percentage pay rise. And that isn't a one off, like a dividend, it is something that's with us for perpetuity.

So when we give a pay rise this year, year on year on year, we have to accommodate that pay rise, regardless of whether the company is making a profit or not.

And with a company as large as royal Maill that can add up to hundreds of 1000s and millions of pounds actually, and then with potentially additional rises on top.

And that's why it needs a lot of consideration about how we accommodate and how do we actually pay for that in the future. Like we're always prioritizing investing and royal Mail at the moment.

Because we want to be competitive, we want to be better, which is one of the reasons why a pay rise is important that we take more time to consider it.


We, when considering it, we need to make sure that we're paying something that's affordable. And that we can manage it on an ongoing basis. And that means it's a pay deal that has to enable us to change and invest for the next year and the year after.

So it's really about looking at it not just for today, but also for tomorrow.



*

Cash in thre attic.gif

In 2020 as you are probably aware there was NOT a Dividend payment due to the pandemic-This was the ONLY time a dividend was not paid-See Royal Mail's dividend page here for confirmation...

https://www.royalmailgroup.com/en/inves ... formation/

Workplace - The gift that keeps on giving.

[Woody Guthrie]

In 2020 as you are probably aware there was NOT a Dividend payment due to the pandemic-

You could technically argue (since she seems to like technicalities) that even in 2020 there was a dividend paid because the payment date was 15/01/20 so there hasn't been any year since privatisation that there hasn't been a dividend payment.

Lies, damm lies and statistics.

Hi Noon

[2yearpostie]

Do they not understand that the workforce out on the street are the foundations of the building? Without the foundations of the building everyone above (managers, ceo, shareholders,etc) dont actually have anything to pay out on, because without us breaking our backs and keeping thier promises to deliver on time they dont have a buisness or any profit.

[fb1969]

That's all very interesting (not) but can she tell us why the company pays dividends to shareholders and doesn't use the money for pay rises?

[TopperGas]

That's all very interesting (not) but can she tell us why the company pays dividends to shareholders and doesn't use the money for pay rises?

She answered that in a roundabout way by saying in the company's view we were already well paid when compared to other courier drivers (although when I spoke to an Amazon driver recently he seemed to be on very similar pay).

She also suggested nurses and teachers were getting similar pay rises, conveniently failing to mention that they weren't at risk of losing their allowances, but they of course work for don't work for a profitable private company. Plus their pay rises were agreed months ago well before the recent fuel price rises. It'll be interesting to see what they get next year.

[cockneyrebel]

Perhaps Ms Noon can comment on was it AFFORDABLE to employ 4 new Executives recently at nigh on £1.5 million pounds in salaries
Because right now, there and other senior management contribution appears to be very LIMITED
Lot so depots short of staff-losing experienced people at greater number than ever in Royal Mail History
IPS Frames devoid of sorters
Depots littered with part time contracts and no contribution to indoor work-not their fault admittedly
Morale still low UK Wide
Sickness high -lots of revisions simply not working-Mail still failing to be delivered right across UK
Share Price nosediving again
People at the top paid extremely well to be there SO EARN IT !!
And right now it simply not happening

[richietns]

Do they not understand that the workforce out on the street are the foundations of the building? Without the foundations of the building everyone above (managers, ceo, shareholders,etc) dont actually have anything to pay out on, because without us breaking our backs and keeping thier promises to deliver on time they dont have a buisness or any profit.

That's true but they know we need our jobs, most of the higher ups take the money and run how many CEOs in the last decade have done this.

[Woody Guthrie]

She answered that in a roundabout way by saying in the company's view we were already well paid when compared to other courier drivers

Sick of this false comparison s**t.
I was out walking in the pissing rain for almost 5hrs today.
I'm not a f***ing courier driver, the job is nothing like a courier driver.

She also suggested nurses and teachers were getting similar pay rises

With all due respect most nurses and teachers are not in the job for the pay, they have security and job satisfaction, it's a vocation, a career choice, this isn't a career it's a job, the only reward I get is pay.

[Clappedoutpostie]

She had to mention Amazon didn’t she.

[WalkerX]

She answered that in a roundabout way by saying in the company's view we were already well paid when compared to other courier drivers

Sick of this false comparison s**t.
I was out walking in the pissing rain for almost 5hrs today.
I'm not a f***ing courier driver, the job is nothing like a courier driver.

She also suggested nurses and teachers were getting similar pay rises

With all due respect most nurses and teachers are not in the job for the pay, they have security and job satisfaction, it's a vocation, a career choice, this isn't a career it's a job, the only reward I get is pay.

I`ve not seen an Amazon drivers delivering bloody Dominos pizza door to doors recently.

[smok3y666]

And a lot of the times we're actually telling the shareholders that that's what we're intending to do is to redeploy capital back into the company.

Except they don't.

[smok3y666]

Where do posties ask these questions? Is it on that Workplace thing?

[rambo1]

Do they not understand that the workforce out on the street are the foundations of the building? Without the foundations of the building everyone above (managers, ceo, shareholders,etc) dont actually have anything to pay out on, because without us breaking our backs and keeping thier promises to deliver on time they dont have a buisness or any profit.

The thing they tend to think is that if existing workers are not happy, they'll leave and be replaced by some young kid whose very willing to work for £30k a yr doing stacks of overtime for them. The harsh truth.

[the shadow 36]

This is the perfect example why we should never have been privatised. This argument would then become irrelevant as all profits the company made would of been all ours to keep! The profits instead then could of been used year on year to reinvest in the company and its workforce. Its a disgrace and another example of pure greed that this company wasn't allowed to thrive under public ownership, remember we were told that it wasn't viable for this company to survive without being privatised yet alone it has paid out nearly 2 billion in dividends to date which totally contradicts that statement. Too add to this nonsense up to 2017 they made £400 million from the sale of just 3 sites in Central London, just one of these sites was sold for just short of £200 million yet apparently when we were privatised this site was only said to be valued around £29 million, make of that what u will. We're seeing in the news currently oil companies making enormous profits while most people are struggling to afford to keep their homes heated . It seems people have had enough as the current local elections our proving we can't keep going in the direction we're heading its time as the majority that we demand a fairer and more even society then the one were currently living through.

[Jefferson Starfish]

This is the perfect example why we should never have been privatised. This argument would then become irrelevant as all profits the company made would of been all ours to keep! The profits instead then could of been used year on year to reinvest in the company and its workforce. Its a disgrace and another example of pure greed that this company wasn't allowed to thrive under public ownership, remember we were told that it wasn't viable for this company to survive without being privatised yet alone it has paid out nearly 2 billion in dividends to date which totally contradicts that statement. Too add to this nonsense up to 2017 they made £400 million from the sale of just 3 sites in Central London, just one of these sites was sold for just short of £200 million yet apparently when we were privatised this site was only said to be valued around £29 million, make of that what u will. We're seeing in the news currently oil companies making enormous profits while most people are struggling to afford to keep their homes heated . It seems people have had enough as the current local elections our proving we can't keep going in the direction we're heading its time as the majority that we demand a fairer and more even society then the one were currently living through.

You do realise the government used to take money out of Royal Mail before privatisation.