A pile of stuff to sort - The Guardian Leader

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/post/story/0,,2189475,00.html

Leader
Friday October 12, 2007
The Guardian

The penny black was issued in 1840, and before long the delivery of letters was deemed an essential public service. It is still seen that way: whether a citizen lives in Orpington or Orkney they are entitled to receive mail regularly, as well as to post to anywhere in the country for a single flat fee. But since 2000 this universal entitlement has been provided by a most unusual creature - a publicly owned plc. Royal Mail, which since June has been locked in a damaging conflict with staff, is required by law to honour the universal service obligation (USO) but also to behave like a commercial player in the emerging postal market. This paradox underlies the latest strikes this week; it also guarantees the company's problems will not go away when the dispute comes to an end.

Hopes that the immediate crisis may soon pass have been kindled because talks that continued yesterday were between Royal Mail's chief executive, Adam Crozier, and the union's general secretary, Billy Hayes: the involvement of the top brass suggests both sides see the prospect of resolution. But the simultaneous spread of wildcat walkouts, which have spread rapidly since the end of the official 48-hour strike on Wednesday, demonstrates that the dispute is not about union posturing but genuine anger. The dispute ranges over most aspects of terms and conditions - hours, pay and pensions. Much of what Royal Mail has offered is reasonable. For example, it is increasing the pension age to reflect longer lives, but will keep open a scheme that shelters individual workers from risk. Yet there is something unedifying about Mr Crozier, whose salary package has at times run into seven figures, loudly condemning the "Spanish practices" of modestly paid staff. This unconscious expression of Elizabethan prejudice earned a rebuke from Madrid's London embassy; more deliberately, though, it struck a confrontational tone which has deepened the resentment.

It is, however, in the interests of workers and managers alike that a resolution should soon be reached; the alternative is that jobs will become less rather than more secure. Some of Royal Mail's problems are well established: even after last year's belated injection of Treasury investment, the company remains shackled with a £6bn pension deficit, a debt which exceeds the business's notional value. But what makes the current strike so different from the last national walkout in 1996 is that dissatisfied customers can now go elsewhere. At the start of last year the government opened the UK market to international competition - controversially making the move well before it was required by EU law. The likes of TNT Post and UK Mail have started to nibble away at the big business contracts which have traditionally provided Royal Mail's most profitable work. Strikes lead to delays, which could spur other big customers into jumping ship. Others firms might decide that it is time to replace physical with electronic communication. For years the growth of junk mail offset the rise of the internet, but in the last couple of years a tipping point has been reached and the total size of the postal market is now declining.

There may come a time when the internet is ubiquitous, and the post is no longer essential. But that is a long way off, so the USO remains an important safeguard for poorer, older and more isolated members of the community. A strong Royal Mail is thus not just in the interest of workforce and managers, but of many vulnerable consumers as well. But its health could soon be threatened when competitors are allowed to cherry-pick the most profitable work, without sharing any of the cost for the social part of the service. Competition is here to stay, but EU law allows for a levy on non-universal postal operators in order to level the playing field. Workers and managers should resolve their dispute, and then combine to demand that this charge is imposed.

[Wessex]

I like the idea of the levy,Postcon have kept quiet about that.The journo still hasnt understood that we deliver all the competitors mail as well,perhaps he would like it if every couple of minutes his boss said you have to write a quick article for the Sun and then one for the Star oh and by the way you're going to get paid less for them and also youre overpaid anyway and inefficient so were going to sack a few of you in the office and youre going to have to do their jobs as well and for less money and pension.And when you complain all of us posties can start shouting hey you lazy pinko hack this isnt the seventies anymore,get on with it or get another job etc etc etc ...grrr.

[Budfrog]

Well written piece with a number of very good points made.

[Yahoorsur]

'The dispute ranges over most aspects of terms and conditions - hours, pay and pensions. Much of what Royal Mail has offered is reasonable. For example, it is increasing the pension age to reflect longer lives, but will keep open a scheme that shelters individual workers from risk.'

Written by someone who has no idea of the job,sitting in a cushy office,a nice middle class professional,pontificating and saying that i as a 64 year old man should be walking up and down stairs with 18kg bags on my back,it beggers belief that in 20 years time I will be still walking and carrying that weight on my back,f**k that for a laugh