Labour members back Mail action

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Labour delegates have backed calls for the government to take responsibility for Royal Mail's pension deficit.

The government had planned to take the £8bn deficit on, as part of plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, which were shelved in July.

In an emergency resolution at the party conference, the government was urged to "resolve this matter immediately".

However the debate - used by unions and local parties to make a point - has no formal role in party policy.

The emergency resolution stated that Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier had said the deficit might have reached £10bn and said it was "vital to achieve an early end to this destabilisation of the industry which can only alarm postal worker and customers of the service".

It called on the government "as sole shareholder, to take on its responsibility for the deficit and engage with all the stakeholders to resolve this matter immediately following conference".

The motion was put forward by the Communication Workers Union which has been holding strikes across the country in a bitter row over jobs, pay and services. It was seconded by Unite.

The controversial plans to part privatise Royal Mail were put on hold after a backlash from more than 140 Labour MPs.

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Labour conference backs call for government to take on Royal Mail pensions deficit http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/3 ... ons-labour" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Labour party conference today backed a call for ministers to take responsibility for the multibillion pound funding gap in Royal Mail's pension fund.

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communications Workers' Union, told delegates the government had a "moral obligation" to finance the deficit, which he said was caused by Royal Mail's decision to take a 13-year "pensions holiday" between 1990 and 2003, while postal workers continued to pay their pensions contributions.

The Labour party's national executive backed the call for a government bailout for the growing deficit, which is seen by unions as hampering any move to break the deadlock on further modernisation inside Royal Mail.

The CWU launched a national ballot for strike action earlier this month over further modernisation plans to the service, which unions complain are being imposed from above.

The pensions deficit, estimated to be as large as £10bn, was draining off funding necessary to improve postal services and protect jobs, said Hayes.

"For most of this period, not only was there no employers' contribution paid but over £2bn of profits were retained by government," said Hayes.

The CWU leader was tabling an emergency motion centring on a media interview with the Royal Mail chief executive, Adam Crozier, last week where he admitted the scale of the anticipated shortfall.

Hayes' comments made clear that the current strike ballot over modernisation was closely bound up with the deficit, which threatened jobs, improvements to services as well as retiring workers' pension pot.

"Only Labour can modernise Royal Mail as a public service," said Hayes. "The workforce remains ready to secure that success. All they need is the government to keep its share of the bargain."

Hayes said the anticipated shortfall meant the excess to be paid per year would be nearly three times the current figure, and seized on the fact that Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, had said the public would only accept the cost of this obligation if Royal Mail was part-privatised.

Stan Anderson, a postal worker from Mitcham and Morden, said he has spent the past 43 years of his life working from 5am to 6pm. "I do not want to spend the rest of my life lying awake at 5am worrying about my pension," he told delegates.

Gill Sones, whose husband is a CWU officer, said today was supposed to be the day he retired. "Rather than doing those jobs I had lined up for him to do, he is at work because he cannot afford to retire," she said.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, welcomed the fact that Mandelson had ditched plans to part-privatise the service, but called on the government to honour its obligation to staff.

While it was up to Royal Mail and the unions to resolve the dispute over modernisation it was up to the government to sort out the deficit that hung over the entire workforce, said Woodley.

"In the end, postal workers just want an end to the uncertainty about pay and pensions and their jobs in this crucial service.

"The government said it was fully prepared to fund the deficit for privatisation. If they were prepared to do that for the takeover of Royal Mail, then they could now legislate to protect our pensions in the long term."

[IWW Fellow Worker]

"Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, welcomed the fact that Mandelson had ditched plans to part-privatise the service, but called on the government to honour its obligation to staff."

Woodly has a nest of scab vipers in his membership which he seems reluctant to ditch. Until he gets rid of the CMA, I can't take him seriously.