Do you really have RM shares?

[Janbaxer]

Hi.
This is my first post here, so apologies if this is a repeat of another thread or in the wrong place.

Yesterday I asked an RM manager if the shares were now the property of the individual staff or if they could still be taken from them if they left the company.

He assured me the shares were now property of the individual workers, although they could not be traded for 3 years.
I asked him to confirm this as I had heard different.

He returned to me later to say he was wrong and I was right. If an employee leaves the company for ANY reason other than redundancy the shares would not be issued to them.

This information was later confirmed by a CWU rep.

So, in effect, no RM employees have any shares. Some may get an allocation in 3 and 4 years if they remain with the company (who knows what can happen to individuals and to RM in the coming years?)
Any certificates issued in the meantime are worthless. (remember your Colleague Shares?)

A little further probing gives me the distinct impression this messy blurr of information and misinformation has been used to ease the path of privatisation.

Am I right to suspect most employees are currently under the impression they are now shareholders? I decided to do a little research. Over the last 24 hours I have talked to about a dozen RM workers and NOT ONE of them knew they had to stay with the company for at least 3 more years to get their hands on the shares.

If I was you I would be outraged at RM (for yet another slight of hand con of their staff), the CWU (for not making sure their members were aware of this) and at Nick Hewer (just for being a tw*t).

[catch22]

always read the small print.
the information was in the red book.

[dvbuk55]

Yet the union are trying to get the voting rights to something that really doesn't exist until the end of year 3. I just wonder if the union are aware of that yet if they managed to get down as far as the small print. There are certainly restrictions on whether or not you receive the shares. As a member over 60 I have just received notification that if I resign before April next year I will be considered as retired and will keep the 2013 shares which will be issued to me but will not be issued with any shares in 2014. So in fact I need to retire to get my hands on the shares in reality.

[shepherdess]

so what happens to the dividend payments?

[dvbuk55]

so what happens to the dividend payments?

Well presumably they will be paid as per normal shares - it makes you wonder though why we haven't just been given shares in a regular way.

[Chelseablue]

All done to make us feel part of the share thing,,once again making an ar se of Royal Mail workers ,,,,and getting away with it again !

[chrisj]

Once you get dividend payments like other ordinary share holders then you can confirm that you really do own the shares; baring you remaining with RM.

In addition to the above, those that retires on whatever ground (age or IHR) will soon be pocketing their shares; then there will be no doubt.

My problem is why some posties want to rely on what other tell them. Find out for yourself by reading up about it from various sources.

Your DOM is not the one to ask - that is lazy!

* I should add that RM is just like any other public limited company; the share price will go up and down, they might be subject to take over but I doubt such a company will go absolutely bankrupt leaving the share holders with nothing. After 3 or 5 years, people can start to act and take full responsibility for their shares.

** Yes, the share were a bribe or a sweetener to get privatisation off but most employee were completely ignorant of the fact and some mistrusted the concept of share ownership - some still do. The same sort of people that said the share price will tank if we decided to go on Strike have been unpleasantly surprised.

[postmanplod69]

I would have thought each employee would be issued with a share certificate outlining how many they actually own but doesn't seem to have happened

[Lincox]

Yes DVB I have just received the same letter. It says that if you resign after the age of sixty you are entitled to your free shares without tax, ni, or capital gains reductions. So question is if you are off sick and given ihr does that also count and if you are sacked as a result of breaching the sickness procedures and are over sixty do you receive them. Also if you are up on disciplinary, do you jump ship and resign before any case goes against you.

[Lincox]

We have been notified of how many have been allocated, but not by way of a share certificate.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.myroyalmail.com/sites/defaul ... ochure.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Page 23

Free Shares

If you leave Royal Mail, you may lose your Free Shares. If you are allowed to keep them, they will need to come out of the SIP and you may have to pay income tax and National Insurance depending on the reason you left Royal Mail and how long it is since you were given the Free Shares. You will not lose any shares you buy under the Employee Priority Offer

If you leave Royal Mail for the following reasons, you will not lose your Free Shares and will not have to pay income tax or National Insurance on their value.

• You have an injury or disability which means
you can no longer do your job

• You are made redundant

• You retire

• The part of the company or business you work for is sold or transferred

• You die (in this situation, the people managing your estate will not have to pay income tax or National Insurance on the value of your
Free Shares)

If you leave Royal Mail for any of the reasons above, the Trustee will take your Free Shares out of the SIP. You will not pay any income tax or National Insurance on the value of your Free Shares, regardless of when you leave. You (or, if you have died, those managing your estate) may instruct the Employee Share Offers administrator, Equiniti, to transfer the shares to you (or those managing your estate) or to sell your shares. If you give no instructions, your shares will be sold by Equiniti and you (or your estate) will receive the money made from the sale (after a fee has been deducted for selling your shares).

If you leave Royal Mail for the following reasons, you may lose your Free Shares or have to pay income tax and National Insurance on their value.

• You resign

• You are dismissed

If you leave Royal Mail for either of the reasons above, the following will apply.

If you leave within three years after being given the Free Shares, you will lose the shares.

If you leave between three and five years after being given the Free Shares, the Trustee will take them out of the SIP and you can instruct the Employee Share Offers administrator, Equiniti, either to sell all your shares or sell enough of the shares to cover any income tax and National Insurance that are due and any costs (commission) relating to the sale of your shares, and transfer the rest of the shares to you for you to continue to hold outside the SIP.

If you leave more than five years after being given the Free Shares, you may instruct the Employee Share Offers administrator, Equiniti, either to sell the shares or transfer them to you so you continue to hold them outside the SIP. You will not pay any income tax or National Insurance on the value of the shares. If you sell your Free Shares, Equiniti will deduct any costs (commission) relating to the sale of your shares before sending you the money made from selling them.

[chrisj]

No share certificate* but you will soon get some information like share reference number from Equiniti and you can register and happily look at how your shares is doing. We have already got a confirmation letter of number of shares - have you not?

Not very interesting if you cannot really sell but they will also send you a statement of your dividends and provide you with a choice of either having your dividend paid as a cheque or credited to a bank account.

* Share certificate are being phased out and most new shares are now held in a nominee account or electronically through CREST... Share certificate cost more to sell and if you lose them, you have to pay for replacements.

[chrisj]

I suppose they are called Share Incentive Plan for a reason. The employer gives you a sort of bonus that is linked to the success or otherwise of the company.

I am not sure whether the law or regulation was brought in specifically with Royal Mail in mind or they simply want to limit the cash bonus given to some sectors; and possibly they had an eye of stopping the sort of payout that encourages short-termism...

[clashcityrocker]

I suppose they are called Share Incentive Plan for a reason. The employer gives you a sort of bonus that is linked to the success or otherwise of the company.

I am not sure whether the law or regulation was brought in specifically with Royal Mail ...

Introduced in the UK in 2000......

[chrisj]

2000 is a long time ago - introduced by the Labour party. So I wonder how many other companies have used SIPs or are currently using SIPS?

So nothing to do with RM privatisation specifically. Well, there we have it - there is no conspiracy as far as giving us shares is concerned.