No part of the Post Office should be sold off

[LinChong]

In 2002, Post Office Ltd attempted to outsource its cash management and transportation services to Securicor (now G4S). The plan was stopped because cash centre workers and drivers took unofficial strike action and walked out. This prompted the CWU to ballot for official action:

"Postal workers have voted massively in favour of strikes in protest at the sale of the Royal Mail's cash handling business, it was announced today.

Members of the Communication Workers Union backed industrial action by 95% and could stage walkouts within weeks.
The union is protesting against plans to sell the cash handling and distribution business to Securicor.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: "This is as clear a mandate as anyone could receive. We will go ahead with organisation of strike action within the next few weeks.

"Because of the seriousness of the situation we are also considering a wider ballot of all our members in the postal industry."
The union, which balloted 3,000 workers, will meet next week to consider setting strike dates.
Mr Hayes warned that industrial action could mean that post offices would be "starved" of cash and would not be able to provide a service.

The union said the proposed sale did not guarantee pensions, employment conditions or other "hard won" terms and conditions.
"Our members would have to accept that their livelihoods are put on the line because of a business decision which we consider to be essentially wrong," said Mr Hayes.

"It is no way to treat employees who put themselves on the line every day carrying out an essential service for the community."
The CWU said it could not tolerate a situation where workers were "treated like cheap furniture".

Mr Hayes added: "They do not deserve to be treated in such a cavalier fashion."

The Government referred the planned sale to the Competition Commission last week."

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It was unclear whether the proposal would have got past the Competition Commission. Here is the report from the Office of Fair Trading:

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In summary, there were no objections to the outsourcing of cash management (work done in cash centres) but if the cash in transit contract had been outsourced to Securicor, it would have made them the largest player in a 3 player market on the mainland and the only player in Northern Ireland. Post Office Ltd also competes for national cash in transit contracts and this competition benefits the consumer. After the strike, the proposal was withdrawn. Here is the Securicor statement:

"Securicor PLC
Statement re: Post Office Contract

Friday 22 November 2002

Post Office Contract Withdrawal

Securicor plc announces that Royal Mail's Cash Handling and Distribution
division has withdrawn its proposal for the outsourcing of its cash management
and transportation services in order to avoid disruption across the Royal Mail
customer base at a critical time of year.

We are disappointed that Royal Mail has had to take this decision. However,
Securicor has developed a market-leading cash management and transportation
solution and is now in a position to bid for other significant outsourcing
contracts which may be tendered in the future."

Ten years on, there has been a restructure of Post Office Limited's cash management and transportation services and POL has won a lot of new cash in transit contracts because POL is the most reliable carrier. Since the Olympics, customers have lost confidence in G4S. It would upset a lot of customers if the cash in transit operation was outsourced. However, there is still a possibility that cash management could be outsourced. A huge amount of public money has been spent on the remaining cash centres, installing machines and upgrading security to conform to Bank of England requirements.

It would not be right for cash centres to be sold off now after so much public money has been spent doing them up.