Royal Mail warns of job losses after sell-off

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013 ... job-losses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Company spokesman indicates further job losses following controversial privatisation of 500-year-old institution

Royal Mail has warned that more postal workers will lose their jobs following its controversial privatisation. On Tuesday the 500-year-old national institution saw unprecedented demand for its share offer, with more than 1 million people thought to have applied. In its written submission to parliament on Wednesday, Royal Mail said: "The company will employ fewer people in the future, whoever owns it."

The company refused to state how many of Royal Mail's 150,000 employees will be axed.

Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive, who was paid £1.6m last year, has said the company needs to be "sized appropriately for the [declining] traffic we have to process".

The forthcoming cuts come on top of 50,000 jobs lost over the past decade. The company said it "remains committed to the overarching objective of achieving this without compulsory redundancies".

"Over the past decade, the postal services sector has changed dramatically. A decline in mail volumes has coincided with the liberalisation of the market and the emergence of competition. In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of parcels being sent. All of this has meant a difficult process of change for our people," Royal Mail said in its submission to the business, innovation and skills select committee.

"Many of Royal Mail's employees have seen changes to their working practices as the company has adapted its operations to the changed mix of mail. Change will continue and the company will employ fewer people in the future, whoever owns it."

Royal Mail workers, who are 96% opposed to the privatisation, continued their campaign against the sell-off with a protest outside parliament ahead of committee meeting. Activists dressed up as highway robbers carried banners saying: "The Great British Royal Mail Robbery".

Vince Cable, the business secretary in charge of the sell-off, was giving evidence to MPs on Wednesday. Ahead of the hearing, the government said its main objective was to secure the universal postal service, which guarantees deliveries to every address in the UK, six days a week, for the same price: "Privatisation will allow the company to innovate, invest, improve our services, win new business, deliver the high-quality universal service, and continue to be a very substantial employer in the UK."

The government has been overwhelmed with public orders for shares in Royal Mail, up to 70% of which will be floated on the stock exchange on Friday morning. The shares are expected to rise instantly, by a speculated 20-40%.

The government will collect about £2bn from the sell-off, but Labour claims the coalition massively undervalued the company and could have made hundreds of millions more for taxpayers.

[blackadder]

its gota be a good 50,000 going at least by xmas 2014

[Surreypostie]

Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive, who was paid £1.6m last year, has said the company needs to be "sized appropriately for the [declining] traffic we have to process".

As a shareholder, I vote to axe the executives first. They haven't processed a single item and therefore bring no value to the company.

[meweavy]

Everyone saw this coming a mile off.
Yet they have bombarded us with propaganda for the last 3 months telling us that privatisation is a good thing....
And now they have announced that once it is sold off jobs will go.

[hubbahubba]

Shes talks of falling traffic as the reason for downsizing,yet every chance they get they tell you we are a "parcel" business,and that our market share is increasing!

Strange you would make the workforce smaller,as most letters are mechable,and only takes a few people to run a machine,yet parcels are much bigger and nearly always manually handled by PEOPLE.

[meweavy]

its gota be a good 50,000 going at least by xmas 2014

B& h is going to get even worse if they are looking to cull more staff.

[clashcityrocker]

I don't think she has said anything different to what she has been saying all along.

However if the overarching objective is to achieve this without compulsory redundancies, and out MTSF is very generous compared to the bare legal requirements, how is the downsizing going to come about?
Now more than ever people need to understand the importance of doing the job properly.

[sharky55]

Now that the true cost of privatisation has been revealed after weeks telling us how much better off we'll be after the sale, can I volunteer a few DOM's for the first step at the guillotine.
We've got two of them running two small town offices in our area.
Constant cutting of hours, lapsing of duties, complete lack of communication and not a scooby doo between them on how to get the post out the door. You couldn't make it up!

[Robbo318]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

I think compulsary redundancies will be virtually nil, its when people retire/leave/sacked they mean, they wont be replacing them, they use agency staff

[cloherty1976]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

I think compulsary redundancies will be virtually nil, its when people retire/leave/sacked they mean, they wont be replacing them, they use agency staff

This would be my prediction but a lot of others would say mass sackings, no vr terms, minimum wage and zero hours contract!

[Budfrog]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

Maybe not frontline managers but certainly support managers ... if you have a look at the RM Jobs advertised at the moment there is almost square root of F_All in the way of managerial jobs. I also noted that in some areas they are recruiting Graduates on £24k who are willing (if somewhat inept) replacements for substantive £36k managers (on 6Wks 2.5Days A/L) who do get the push ... I mean volunteer to leave (after some encouragement in the way of direct blackmail "Take the VR or it could be CR"). Linos will come next ... re-branded as supervisors or team leaders.

OPGs are probably in the safest place as far as job security is concerned at the moment despite the downturn in traffic (or upturn in parcels/packets if you want to spin it that way). Their T&Cs will be under constant attack but even Moya isn't stupid enough to know you need workers to collect/process/distribute/deliver the mail and to get them to work at a really good rate, what better way than the fear of losing their jobs with a little B&H thrown in for good measure.

[jack]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

I think compulsary redundancies will be virtually nil, its when people retire/leave/sacked they mean, they wont be replacing them, they use agency staff

You can bet ones bottom dollar on that....... IHR/Sackings will be going into overdrive in the following months

[UnhappyGremlin]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

I think compulsary redundancies will be virtually nil, its when people retire/leave/sacked they mean, they wont be replacing them, they use agency staff

You can bet ones bottom dollar on that....... IHR/Sackings will be going into overdrive in the following months

To be fair, sackings (and attempted ones that failed) have already been on the increase for some time.
Every little mistake is jumped on and charges trumped up against people in order to get rid.

[meweavy]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

I think compulsary redundancies will be virtually nil, its when people retire/leave/sacked they mean, they wont be replacing them, they use agency staff

You can bet ones bottom dollar on that....... IHR/Sackings will be going into overdrive in the following months

To be fair, sackings (and attempted ones that failed) have already been on the increase for some time.
Every little mistake is jumped on and charges trumped up against people in order to get rid.

This has been going on in every office, but it will be stepped up even more, fit ups and full on bullying wont be far off.even more so than atm.

[UnhappyGremlin]

Useless managers on big fat wages will be the first people in their crossheirs

I think compulsary redundancies will be virtually nil, its when people retire/leave/sacked they mean, they wont be replacing them, they use agency staff

You can bet ones bottom dollar on that....... IHR/Sackings will be going into overdrive in the following months

To be fair, sackings (and attempted ones that failed) have already been on the increase for some time.
Every little mistake is jumped on and charges trumped up against people in order to get rid.

This has been going on in every office, but it will be stepped up even more, fit ups and full on bullying wont be far off.even more so than atm.

Agree.
It's not like the situation isn't bad enough now.