Royal Mail has said it is planning to axe up to 6,000 jobs as a result of heavy financial losses, which the company blamed partly on the ongoing industrial action.
The company has been involved in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which has organised a series of strike actions.
On Thursday, CWU members at Royal Mail launched a fresh strike. The industrial action is expected to take place over a further 19 days, including key dates in the build-up to Christmas.
Announcing the planned job cuts on Friday, the firm said the move is in response to the “impact of industrial action, delays in delivering agreed productivity improvements, and lower parcel volumes.”
It said it is seeking short-term cost efficiencies through the planned reduction of 5,000 full-time equivalent roles by March and around 10,000 by August.
Royal Mail highlighted the reduction of 10,000 full-time equivalent roles will include the removal of overtime, the decision not to fill empty roles, and a reduction in temporary workers.
The plan is therefore expected to require between 5,000–6,000 redundancies by August.
Royal Mail is expected to fall to a £350 million operating loss for the year after being hit by industrial action, its parent group International Distributions Services (IDS) said.
‘Very Sad Day’
Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson said: “This is a very sad day. I regret that we are announcing these job losses.”He said the company lost £219 million ($245 million) in the first half of the year, and “each strike day weakens our financial situation.”
“The CWU’s decision to choose damaging strike action over resolution regrettably increases the risk of further headcount reductions,” he added.
But the CWU blamed the job losses on the company’s “gross mismanagement” and “failed business agenda.”
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “What the company should be doing is abandoning its asset-stripping strategy and building the future based on utilising the competitive edge it already has in its deliveries to 32 million addresses across the country.”
He said the union is calling for an urgent meeting with the board and will put forward an alternative business plan.
“This announcement is holding postal workers to ransom for taking legal industrial action against a business approach that is not in the interests of workers, customers, or the future of Royal Mail. This is no way to build a company.”
