Earlier this month Royal Mail asked Postcomm, its regulator, to make an exception in the case of industrial action to regulations governing penalty payments if service standards fall. At present a strike is not considered 'force majeure' under the regulations, and if there is a stoppage, Royal Mail can be penalised.
This can happen in several ways: a compensation scheme for businesses which reduces Royal Mail's future revenues, a quality benchmark that it must meet or trigger penalties - known as the 'C factor' - and direct fines from Postcomm. Royal Mail believes the first two measures could cost it up to £300m in the event of protracted strikes, and on 2 May asked the regulator to waive them for two years.
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2 years of trouble and strikes!!!!
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robmacca
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F0zziebear
- MYSTERY MAN
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re: No way it will be as much as £300M
I can tell you now that they won't be paying out £300M. It would be one of the biggest payouts in history and essentially bankrupt RM.
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robmacca
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simonr2020
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Royal Mail requests suspension of penalty payments
came accross this article today on FT website
rather interesting don't you think LOL
(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f420d002-1237-1 ... 10621.html)
Royal Mail requests suspension of penalty payments
By John Willman, Business Editor
Published: June 4 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 4 2007 03:00
Royal Mail has asked the postal regulator to suspend rules that force it to compensate customers if it is unable to meet service targets because of industrial action by staff.
The request was submitted to Postcomm after the Communication Workers Union decided to ballot its members in a vote that is expected to support industrial action when the result is announced on Thursday.
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Under the terms of its licence, Royal Mail must compensate business customers if it fails to meet its service targets for delivering bulk mail on time. Its prices for all users can also be pegged back in the following year if service falls below acceptable levels.
Royal Mail has told the regulator the risk of incurring hefty penalties could force it to shelve its modernisation plans to head off disruptive industrial action. That would undermine its drive to become more efficient for the benefit of all postal users and its staff, whose job security would be threatened.
"Our business customers will not see innovation or long-term service improvement. Consumers will see the one-price-goes-anywhere service (provided and funded entirely by Royal Mail) threatened ... Avoidance of all industrial relations risk will not create the business and services that stakeholders want to see."
The regulator previously imposed a fine of £7.5m in December 2003 after Royal Mail failed to meet delivery targets for two types of business mail, saying the penalty was "relatively lenient" because it was a first offence. Since then, the state-owned operator has improved its service performance and last week announced it had hit all but one of its 12 performance targets last year.
Industry observers expect Postcomm, which said it would be discussing the request this week, to be sympathetic to the request to strengthen Royal Mail's hand in negotiating with the union.
Postwatch, the users' watchdog, said it was nervous about lifting the incentive for Royal Mail to take prompt action to deal with industrial action.
"When there's official industrial action, it just doesn't collect the mail," said Andy Frewin. "If it acts quickly, there will only be penalties for the mail already in the system."
Royal Mail management is concerned that the union will adopt a guerrilla strategy of one-day strikes and working-to-rule that would hit its performance over the long term.
Industrial action would also hit Royal Mail's private sector competitors which rely on it to deliver mail after they have collected and sorted it.
"Any industrial action is a blow to the postal industry," said Guy Buswell of Business Post, owner of UK Mail. "It makes customers think why they should use mail".
Nick Wells of TNT Post, part of the Dutch postal giant which plans to create its own UK delivery network, said it did not yet have the operational capacity to replace Royal Mail. "This sort of uncertainty doesn't do much for the direct marketing businesses that are important users."
rather interesting don't you think LOL
(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f420d002-1237-1 ... 10621.html)
Royal Mail requests suspension of penalty payments
By John Willman, Business Editor
Published: June 4 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 4 2007 03:00
Royal Mail has asked the postal regulator to suspend rules that force it to compensate customers if it is unable to meet service targets because of industrial action by staff.
The request was submitted to Postcomm after the Communication Workers Union decided to ballot its members in a vote that is expected to support industrial action when the result is announced on Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Under the terms of its licence, Royal Mail must compensate business customers if it fails to meet its service targets for delivering bulk mail on time. Its prices for all users can also be pegged back in the following year if service falls below acceptable levels.
Royal Mail has told the regulator the risk of incurring hefty penalties could force it to shelve its modernisation plans to head off disruptive industrial action. That would undermine its drive to become more efficient for the benefit of all postal users and its staff, whose job security would be threatened.
"Our business customers will not see innovation or long-term service improvement. Consumers will see the one-price-goes-anywhere service (provided and funded entirely by Royal Mail) threatened ... Avoidance of all industrial relations risk will not create the business and services that stakeholders want to see."
The regulator previously imposed a fine of £7.5m in December 2003 after Royal Mail failed to meet delivery targets for two types of business mail, saying the penalty was "relatively lenient" because it was a first offence. Since then, the state-owned operator has improved its service performance and last week announced it had hit all but one of its 12 performance targets last year.
Industry observers expect Postcomm, which said it would be discussing the request this week, to be sympathetic to the request to strengthen Royal Mail's hand in negotiating with the union.
Postwatch, the users' watchdog, said it was nervous about lifting the incentive for Royal Mail to take prompt action to deal with industrial action.
"When there's official industrial action, it just doesn't collect the mail," said Andy Frewin. "If it acts quickly, there will only be penalties for the mail already in the system."
Royal Mail management is concerned that the union will adopt a guerrilla strategy of one-day strikes and working-to-rule that would hit its performance over the long term.
Industrial action would also hit Royal Mail's private sector competitors which rely on it to deliver mail after they have collected and sorted it.
"Any industrial action is a blow to the postal industry," said Guy Buswell of Business Post, owner of UK Mail. "It makes customers think why they should use mail".
Nick Wells of TNT Post, part of the Dutch postal giant which plans to create its own UK delivery network, said it did not yet have the operational capacity to replace Royal Mail. "This sort of uncertainty doesn't do much for the direct marketing businesses that are important users."
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POSTMAN
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I posted the 1st bit,i'll merge the threads as thats another bit to it.
Cheers sim
Cheers sim
I Wrote-During Covid-Which is still relevant now
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.