After Easter, postal workers at Royal Mail are prepared to stage a new round of strikes as negotiations dragged on and managers made “scandalous” threats to push the business into administration, Entrepreneurng report.
In the long-running disagreement between the firm and the union, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents around 115,000 postal workers, is close to deciding on numerous strike dates to take place later in April. This week, an official announcement of the strike dates is anticipated.
The months-long conflict over compensation and working conditions has strained relations between Royal Mail leadership and its staff. The situation worsened last night as reported that the board of the corporation had threatened to put the regulated UK entity that distributes to every address in the nation, the loss-making postal service, under government control if a deal could not be reached.
The board views the politically risky decision to declare the postal service insolvent as a last resort that would likely result in job losses within the 140,000-person workforce.
The chair of the business, energy, and industrial strategy select committee, Darren Jones MP, stated: “It would be a scandalous outcome of the privatization of Royal Mail for the shareholders to keep the international, enormously profitable parcels business they spun out of Royal Mail – along with the substantial pay, bonuses, and dividends of the past years – while handing back the letters business to the taxpayer to clean up their mess.
“The government will have to assume control of Royal Mail if it does go insolvent. In the usual manner, my committee will be in charge of monitoring that procedure.”
If “substantial operational reform” cannot be reached with the unions, Royal Mail has also threatened to split its domestic and overseas companies. Even before a ransomware assault that prevented it from making deliveries from the UK to other nations, the company claimed it was on course to post operating losses of £350 million to £400 million this year. It has declined to pay the $80 million (£67 million) ransom demanded by Russian-linked hackers.
The firm must now decide whether to reach a settlement with the union or continue its daily onslaught on postal workers in workplaces across the UK, according to a CWU representative. Without the assistance of the staff, Royal Mail cannot have a bright future.
“We have been clear throughout the dispute that considerable reform of our network and working processes is required for the business to survive,” a representative for Royal Mail said. The company cannot continue to lose more than £1 million every day. Change cannot be put off forever.”
Our postmen and women’s job security would be in jeopardy if the CWU continues to take strike action, and our pay offer would become unaffordable.
Conclusion
The union dispute has been painful for Simon Thompson, the CEO of Royal Mail. MPs have accused Thompson of being “incompetent or clueless” and have asked the regulator, Ofcom, to look into whether the company has violated legal service requirements.
Source: The Guardian
