Royal Mail job losses announcement 'just a threat,' says union CWU
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said the announcement of mass job losses by Royal Mail was "just a threat" and Northern Ireland workers were "being held to ransom".
A Royal Mail spokesperson told UTV that job losses would be evaluated on a "unit-by-unit basis", and that the decision to move for redundancies was a direct result of the CWU's industrial action.
Royal Mail said on Friday that the planned reductions will be 5,000 full-time equivalent roles by March and around 10,000 by August.
The company said that the specifics of job losses will be decided and announced after evaluating each unit of the business.
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 has led to a further breakdown in relations between the union and the company.
The CWU General Secretary Dave Ward blasted the firm's management and the company's business agenda.
"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 32million addresses across the country," he said.
“The CWU is calling for an urgent meeting with the board and will put forward an alternative business plan at that meeting.
“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.”
Royal Mail is expected to fall to a £350m operating loss for the year after being hit by industrial action, its parent group International Distributions Services said. The cuts announcement comes a day after Royal Mail workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) launched a fresh strike in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson said: “This is a very sad day. I regret that we are announcing these job losses. “We will do all we can to avoid compulsory redundancies and support everyone affected. “We have announced today losses of £219m in the first half of the year. 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.”
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