Ahead of Royal Mail’s financial results announcement today (Thursday 17th November) the Communications Workers Union has called on the government to launch an enquiry into what the CWU says has been gross mismanagement by the postal operator’s board of directors.
In a statement passed around CWU members, the union argues: “The truth is, the Royal Mail Group CEO and Board have not acted with integrity and transparency in their dealings with the union since the beginning of this year and they have made huge mistakes along the way which have led directly to them announcing 10,000 job losses – something we simply cannot accept. This amounts to gross mismanagement.”
The CWU points out that the Royal Mail board cannot explain why they walked away from the Pathway to Change agreement between the union and the employer. The CWU say this “was a self- inflicted wound which delayed the opportunity for true modernisation.”
At the same time, the CWU points out the board will not explain why it handed over £567 million in dividends to shareholders rather than supporting its own staff with effective pay rises.
The CWU accuses Royal Mail management of not explaining why they refused an offer by the union to escalate negotiations and meet with them, instead, escalating the industrial dispute by making unagreed changes.
Core to the business, the CWU hasn’t had an explanation for the change of Group name to International Distribution Services. At the same time the Group is widely held to be planning the sale of its international arm GLS, and planning to reduce its Universal Service Obligation (USO) of mail delivery six days a week.
The CWU claims that these issues are down to ‘power struggles’ in the board: “We believe these reckless decisions have been driven by Boardroom power struggles, in the full knowledge that the company has been facing a potential takeover for some time.”
The union continued, “This is backed up by the fact the government has now given clearance to the private equity firm VESA to increase their shareholding. A takeover bid could be imminent and there has been a recent sharp increase in share value, which means someone is clearly buying them.”
Given the situation, the union believes the board incapable of resolving the very large problems the postal and parcel operator faces. The statement concluded, “As things currently stand, we believe the senior managers who led us into this crisis do not have the ability or the right to lead us out of it. This is why we now call on the government to immediately launch an enquiry into the actions of the CEO and Royal Mail Group Board.”
