THE now long running action being taken by Communication Workers Union (CWU) at Royal Mail is set to continue into 2023. Customers using the postal service are being warned about more disruption to deliver services due to the on going national Industrial Action, with Christmas deliveries now under threat. The union has formally notified the Royal Mail that national strike action will still be held on Friday, 23 December and Saturday, 24 December 2022, but what is this action about? Is it just about pay?

A Postal worker we spoke to, but is worried about being named, told us:- "As a Postie, we know people and businesses depend on the mail being delivered and we apologise for the inconvenience our actions are having, but it is far more than just pay we are fighting for. We are taking this action due to Royal Mail's stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect. Yes, we do want our members to get an appropriate pay rise, but we are also facing thousands of compulsory redundancies with the company's modernisation plans. The plans would mean an end to your traditional Postie, as they’re moving to is a zero hour contracts. That’s what their vision is. It means they want to have afternoon and evening delivery. The Postie turning up at your door at 8am or 9am, in the morning, with your letter or your birthday card, they want to do away with that. They are also trying to reduce the number of days it delivers letters from 6 days a week to 5. Under the current rules of Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation (USO), which stem from its history as the state monopoly, it must deliver letters from:- Monday to Saturday and parcels from:- Monday to Friday. Their agenda is to get rid of permanently employed staff, get rid of employee's terms and conditions and have a hire and fire attitude where they will treat staff, like they have within the gig economy, and scrap the USO. So what would that mean for customers? You might not think this means a lot, but we take pride in our work. We also often know most of our customers on our rounds. We often check up on the elderly and vulnerable on our rounds, to see if everything is ok or if they could do with some help. Sometimes it is only our faces they will see in the entire day or even week. I personally have helped people over the years, as have many others over the years. This is something that Royal Mail wouldn't encourage nowadays, as they want every minute to be about posties being productive, however they soak up the good PR when something positive gets into the media. I have changed light bulbs, got boxes out of cupboards, suitcases off the top of the wardrobe, reported gas leaks, I went back to one elderly lady and took her shopping for a microwave and set it up for her. I have picked up countless members of the public after falling in the street and in some cases, got in touch with people to advise that there has been a problem. 1 morning a lady was waiting for the Postie, as she was having problems with her gas fire and couldn't get it started. The pilot light had gone out and it was in a place where I had to get down on the ground to sort it out. Something that would have been very hard for most pensioners to do. Unfortunately, although the lady had a daughter, she didn't want bother her with something trivial, like keeping warm. During Covid, It was noticeable that some people were lonely and even a short greeting in the morning would make their day and for some people that is the case anyway, without a Pandemic. It is also worth noting that Royal Mails workforce, saved Royal Mail during the Pandemic. Because of social distancing, we couldn't go out in vans together, so many Posties used their own cars to go out to delivery, some cycled out and some walked out using trolleys. Without all these measures throughout the country, the service would not have coped and certainly wouldn't have been able to have delivered and collected Covid test kits. We provide far more than just a mail service. We are a part of the Social infrastructure fosters powerful local identities, pride in place and the confidence and wellbeing of local people. Royal Mail is far more than just deliveries. It is an international icon for all that is good about the UK. Yet, the National Media, Government and Royal Mail all seem to forget the work we really do. Royal Mail has wasted millions on construction and maintenance of facilities that they built and then scrapped soon after, then restart it again, such as the parcel freight train network. The current management seems to be very short sighted and are fixed on following an incredibly irresponsible strategy which will end in disaster. That is why we are on strike! It is far more than just pay, as most would have you think."

Another told us:- "We are worried about our names being put online as Royal Mail could partially target our jobs, but we do want to get the message out as to why we are striking. It seems Royal Mail have soon forgotten this goodwill gesture, although the public haven't. Royal Mail claim they are losing £!M a day and if true, I find it hard to believe how the board have taken a company from making £2M a day, to losing £1M a day. However, they are spending over £1M a day on agency staff, which is probably closer to £2M a day with agency fees. Even the best Agency staff aren't as productive as day to day Posties, but this is made worse by the way they are used by management. Sometimes they are given work, just to fill their day, rather than there being an actual need for them. I have been told that Zarena brown, a board member at Royal Mail, also runs one of the agencies that Royal Mail use, but I can't confirm this is true, but It is possible that a little research could confirm this. Whilst reporting a loss of £!M a day, Royal Mail started giving away free collections, which even at a conservative estimate will have cost millions in revenue. The likes of Amazon are making good use of those free collections for returns. Why use your own drivers, when Royal Mail give the service for free? They have also given shareholders close to £600 Million. Given managers bonuses and shopping vouchers for attendance during strike periods and are now promised up to 30% of their wages to produce revisions that result in job losses, Knowing that those cuts will result in unachievable workloads. Royal Mail also ordered a complete new uniform for the whole workforce and we were all told that we had to order our full allowance, regardless of how much you need uniform. We had to do this a year before the new uniform was being introduced, so if your size had changed in a year, everything had to go back. Royal Mail have also recently spent 100s of Millions on superhubs around the country, for sorting parcels. Something that is an investment, but still contributes to any loss. At the start of the year, Royal Mail had a clear out of thousands of experienced managers, Paying out millions in redundancy payments. It was noticeable that, a lot of these managers would be managers that would question the direction of the company. The official reason was to reduce the headcount of managers, but they have promoted 100s of new managers and I know of several offices that now have more managers than they had prior to the redundancies. There have been a series of decisions from the board, that have had a major impact on the revenue of Royal Mail and it leave me wondering are they deliberate or just irresponsible."

Adding to this conversation another added:- "The USO (Universal Service Obligation) is the obligation for Royal Mail to delivery to every address in the country, 6 days a week at a uniform price. Royal Mail cannot prioritise any customer or product over another and have to meet a minimum quality of service. Royal Mail self regulate themselves, but unfortunately don't report quality of service accurately. Any Mail that comes into the office, should be delivered that day. On some days, mail will not even be attempted to be sorted and they record it as a work plan failure. it is a USO failure, but they misreport this to OFCOM to avoid fines. They also prioritise parcels and packets, which is against the terms of the USO. Although I have written to Damien Moore and he has made OFCOM aware of Royal Mail practices, OFCOM don't seem interested in ensuring customer service, which is the very reason they were put in place to do. The practices that Royal Mail are guilty of, is actually a criminal offence, which has resulted in postmen and women being dismissed for in the past. Yet Management think they are above the law and I would question the usefulness of OFCOM, when they have been made aware of what is going on and do nothing about it?"

For more information about the what to do about your post, if it is affected by the strike, please visit:- RoyalMail.Com.

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