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Postal workers attack Royal Mail ‘gross mismanagement’ as Christmas strikes loom

By Nagasunder in UK Business News, posted November 19, 2022

Royal Mail bosses have been accused of "gross mismanagement" by postal workers.

The accusations came as talks aimed at resolving the ongoing national dispute broke down, and Christmas strikes appear now seem likely.

As Royal Mail Group announces its latest financial situation today, CWU general secretary Dave Ward accuses CEO Simon Thompson and the Board of causing deep financial problems by making "dramatic errors of judgement" on a regular basis.

The postal workers' union will now go ahead with the strikes scheduled for November 24th, 25th, 30th, and 1st.

While the union acknowledges that some progress has been made in recent negotiations, Royal Mail management has not made any written commitments.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “No business making record profits of £758 million in May this year should not be losing over £1 million a day in a matter of weeks without gross mismanagement.

"The truth is that the current senior leadership of Royal Mail have been treating employees, union representatives or future investors with a lack of integrity and transparency.

“Dramatic errors of judgement have been made, like announcing 10,000 job losses to threaten striking workers, abandoning previous agreements and handing over £567 million to shareholders while neglecting the pay of employees who generated that profit.

“Many things remain unexplained, like giving up Royal Mail’s household name in favour of ‘International Distributions Services’, refusing the union’s offer to escalate negotiations and ignoring the unrivalled network of Royal Mail Group to create new financial opportunities.

“We firmly believe these reckless decisions have been informed by power struggles in the boardroom, in the full knowledge of a potential future takeover bid – backed up by the government’s green-lighting of VESA to increase their shareholding.”

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Ward went on to say that postal workers need a deal that benefits them, their communities, and the industry they work in, not one that "covers up for CEO and boardroom failures."

He stated that the CWU and the UK will never accept Royal Mail becoming another Uber-style gig economy courier.

“32 million households and countless small businesses are relying on this dispute to be over for the Christmas period. The pattern of behaviour displayed by Royal Mail top brass suggests they couldn’t care less about resolving any of this.”

Source: Charged Retail

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