Select committee hearing

[postslippete]

It felt to me like the hearing let RM off the hook. Having just watched it... there was a load of waffle, denial and statistics that didn't really mean anything. The gap between what management said in Parliament and what us posties actually experience has become a chasm. Does Kretinsky really think that parcels are not being prioritised over letters?? If only pictures of mail left in trays on the floor or in frames could be taken down and used in evidence against these sly feckers who hide behind wording and technicalities that give them some sort of plausible deniability.

RM wants Universal Service reform but it feels less about "saving the service" and more about trying to justify a parcel-first model while lowering its obligation on letters. At one point, Kretinsky seemed to be trying to justify poor quality of service on letters - but the obvious question never gets asked: If letters have fallen from a peak of 20 billion a year to just 5.6 billion today, then why aren't we capable of delivering them?? We should be smashing it out the park. But we can't because RM removed too many duties and cut too many staff. The problem isn't volume but resourcing.

Even on the new entrants and equalisation, there's still no confidence that RM will do the right thing. If you increase workload while subsequently reducing pay, terms and conditions, staff will either start quiet quitting, go on sick or even leave the company altogether, which many already have. It's no surprise retention is poor. It's more likely that RM will drag this one out and attach equalisation to whatever new delivery model they want along with more broken promises. It's just how they roll.

And thats the real issue in the company. It's not really about letters vs parcels, but a business that is so far up its own ar$e trying to reshape itself through failure while the burden ultimately lands on delivery staff.

[Gingerbread Fred]

These select committees are nothing more than a paper tiger. We had all of this before in the last dispute with Darren Jones - what changed?

The CWU will push it to be more serious than it is because they have ran out of ideas, they know they have no leverage and the leadership is weak.
Take the prioritisation of parcels over letters; it's been going on for over 6 years now. Why hasn't a single rep publicly pushed back on it in their office? Both Thompson and DK have stated it isn't company policy - managers shouldn't be doing it.
The answer is simple - the union won't. They are scared of the company ever since it threatened to stop subs being taken directly from your wage.

Until the staff themselves decide to enforce change, nothing will change - we have all become institutionalised into believing this is the norm and it's harks back to the days of the workhouse where the paymaster was king.

Weak CWU
Weak Staff
Weak T&C's

[TopperGas]

RM have been prioritising parcels well before the CWU's position was weakened following the last strikes?

Although in the past letters were usually always going out the following day, now it could be the following week on some duties.

[Mr Rush]

Parcels should be prioritised. They make money, letters are worth very little.

Per the company's own claims, the value of letters to parcels is 2:1. Being able to stack them up in frames for days on end probably pushes that to 3:1.

I'm guessing D2D contracts are included in that figure

No, that figure is consistent with the addressed letter decline as published in previous annual reports which specify volumes by:

• addressed letters
• unaddressed letters excluding election material (ie, D2D)
• core network parcels
• Parcelforce Worldwide

Revenue also categorises streams by 'letters and other', 'marketing mail' (ie, D2D) and parcels.

5.6bn is bang on what I expected for this year.

[Rommagic]

In ten years time will there be 1.6 billion letters?.

[qwerty2]

In ten years time will there be 1.6 billion letters?.

And 40,000 less staff!!!!!!!

[richietns]

In ten years time will there be 1.6 billion letters?.

The union and RM believe its gonna flatten out at about 4 billion they said that at the last strike time were always gonna have letters just not 20 billion.

[Rommagic]

Ok.

[TopperGas]

In ten years time will there be 1.6 billion letters?.

The union and RM believe its gonna flatten out at about 4 billion they said that at the last strike time were always gonna have letters just not 20 billion.

I can't see it flattening out at 4B as customers will continue to send less cards and eventually the NHS etc will move to using email etc probably even junk mail will disappear.

[richietns]

In ten years time will there be 1.6 billion letters?.

The union and RM believe its gonna flatten out at about 4 billion they said that at the last strike time were always gonna have letters just not 20 billion.

I can't see it flattening out at 4B as customers will continue to send less cards and eventually the NHS etc will move to using email etc probably even junk mail will disappear.

Its a projection I think there has to be a figure where hospital letters and funky pigeon won't go away.

[Mr Rush]

In ten years time will there be 1.6 billion letters?.

The union and RM believe its gonna flatten out at about 4 billion they said that at the last strike time were always gonna have letters just not 20 billion.

I can't see it flattening out at 4B as customers will continue to send less cards and eventually the NHS etc will move to using email etc probably even junk mail will disappear.

Even down at permanent sub-10% callrates (as with just doing 1C) that would still be ~1 billion annually (~32m addresses, ~300 delivery days). Plus, despite the hubub about trailblazing Denmark they still need an IPU affiliated courier to take receipt of incoming international mail, so there will always be a damned postcard that needs delivered no matter how much you've contrived to disable your fellow citizens from sending a piece of paper.