Royal Mail partial sell-off Bill published

[POSTMAN]

The Government today pressed ahead with its controversial plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail but tried to head off growing criticism by pledging to enshrine in law that the organisation would remain publicly owned.

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Business Secretary Lord Mandelson published the Postal Services Bill, which confirms moves for a partial sell-off of the postal group.

The move has sparked a huge revolt by Labour MPs, threatening Gordon Brown with the biggest rebellion since he became Prime Minister.

The Bill said the Royal Mail will be enshrined in legislation as a publicly-owned company. No Government will be able to change this status without further primary legislation in the future.

Post Office Ltd will be entirely owned by the Government, and this status will not be changed without further primary legislation in the future.

The universal service - letters collected and delivered anywhere in the UK, six days a week, for a single, affordable price - will be written into the legislation.

The Bill confirmed that postal regulator Postcomm will be abolished and its responsibilities switched to Ofcom, which regulates the communications industry.

Ofcom will have as its primary duty the maintenance of the universal service and will also have the power to clarify the Royal Mail's costs.

Unlike the current regulatory system, it is written into the Bill that Ofcom must give precedence to maintaining the universal service if there is a tension with any of its other functions, such as promotion of competition.

Ofcom will have powers to clarify Royal Mail's costs and ensure other companies' access to Royal Mail's network is regulated on a fair basis.

The Bill also paves the way for a compensation fund so that the Royal Mail's competitors would have to pay towards maintenance of the universal service if it put an unfair burden on the company after modernisation has taken place.

[liamf12]

What hope do we have in fighting this when we can only muster 6700 signitures on a number 10 petition. Most of the people I work with haven't bothered signing it even though I sent them the direct link. Even union reps etc are miising. We should have at least 160,000 signitures on it if everyone could be bothered. Don't complain when you are forced to work part-time or are replaced by a 13 year old paid less than the minimum wage!

[POSTMAN]

The government will take over the Royal Mail's pension liabilities up until December 2008 at a cost of £6bn. This means postal workers will have "complete security" that their entitlements will be met in full, which the Royal Mail pension fund trustees have suggested is not the case under the current arrangements

[Broxi51]

What hope do we have in fighting this when we can only muster 6700 signitures on a number 10 petition. Most of the people I work with haven't bothered signing it even though I sent them the direct link. Even union reps etc are miising. We should have at least 160,000 signitures on it if everyone could be bothered. Don't complain when you are forced to work part-time or are replaced by a 13 year old paid less than the minimum wage!

I agree that 6700 signatures is poor but the press is fantastic. The public in their droves are outraged that Labour are part privatising us. The 158 names in EDM 428 is fantastic and will grow and grow during the coming months.
Gordon Brown is stuck in a corner now. He has already started distancing himself from Mandy and McFaddy with his eloquent silence. Those 2 goons should be looking over their shoulders because the public are annoyed and it takes a lot to get through to the people of apathetic UK. In France you just need to sneeze to get the unions out but over here it takes more and that is what is happening. No longer is it the CWU against the Government. It is now backbenchers, CWU, Unison, Unite,GMB, Usdaw, Community, Ucatt, TSSA and the general public. Whilst we have not won yet we have shown Labour that it will be a massive fight to get this through. Even the tories that they will need to rely on will be thinking very carefully about voting this through. Keep heart my friend, The tide has turned.

[pocky20]

am with with you on that laim sometimes i dont think that people understand just how bad this is or dont care am fed up talking about it .and am sure people are fed up with me talking about it but i think this is worth fighting for and cant seem to stop myself if there is a sell of its just a matter of time maybe a few years and the door wiil be open and royalmail will be no more mandy is just saying anything to get people on side and to get his own way on this sale but nuff said about him.will all need to stand together on this every one needs to get behind it to keep the wolfs from the door . because come june i dont know what going to happen to royalmail or when ever mandy trys to this this sale passed :mfo

[pocky20]

hope so brox.keep the faith m8 . i will :mfo

[BELIAL]

The government will take over the Royal Mail's pension liabilities up until December 2008 at a cost of £6bn. This means postal workers will have "complete security" that their entitlements will be met in full, which the Royal Mail pension fund trustees have suggested is not the case under the current arrangements

Read section 21 subsection 3 ,quite the opposite

[pocky20]

so what you sayin

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The government will take over the Royal Mail's pension liabilities up until December 2008 at a cost of £6bn. This means postal workers will have "complete security" that their entitlements will be met in full, which the Royal Mail pension fund trustees have suggested is not the case under the current arrangements

Read section 21 subsection 3 ,quite the opposite

I read it differently

17 Division of the RMPP into different sections

(2) An order under this section may include provision for—
(a) requiring the Secretary of State to make periodic payments to the
trustee of the RMPP to enable the discharge of the liabilities in respect
of qualifying accrued rights as they fall due, and
(b) determining the times at which those payments are to be made.

21 Restriction on power to transfer assets

(3) For the purposes of this section it is to be assumed that, in a case where an order
under section 17 is made, all the liabilities mentioned in subsection (2) of that
section are extinguished at the relevant time.

I think it says that when the pensions are transferred to Government control then the liabilities themselves (ie the deficit) with the RMPP are canceled.

Typical legal language though it could be read anyway they want it to be

[BELIAL]

I Think thats what you are meant to think. However at the end of the day this is proposed detail of Splitting the RM pension fund for purpose of transfer of parts to a Third party (presumably TNT, it goes along with transfer of the workforce) and then all govt. Liabilities will be deemed " extinguished" not paid up. I bet you a penny that a sneaky govt legal bod would argue that if we sign up to this we would not even be covered by the Pension Guarantee Scheme

[panther]

As a new member and living Australia and been a postie for many years, i am amazed that a labor Government would try and privatise a Postal Service.

The Conservitives Liberal government tried this trick several years ago and we launched the Union and its members a campain titled HANDS OFF AUSTRALIA POST and we had a dancing pillar box and Van that toured all cities and country towns pushing the anti sell off. Although the Liberal Government at the time had the numbers in both Houses we stopped it by getting the population to oppose the sell off.

All the best in your campain
Panther

[TrueBlueTerrier]

As a new member and living Australia and been a postie for many years, i am amazed that a labor Government would try and privatise a Postal Service.

The Conservitives Liberal government tried this trick several years ago and we launched the Union and its members a campain titled HANDS OFF AUSTRALIA POST and we had a dancing pillar box and Van that toured all cities and country towns pushing the anti sell off. Although the Liberal Government at the time had the numbers in both Houses we stopped it by getting the population to oppose the sell off.

All the best in your campain
Panther

Thanks for the solidarity Panther, and welcome to the site.