Update On Cwu Strike Action At Royal Mail

13/07/2007

Royal Mail said today support for the Communication Workers Union strike had slipped and remained extremely patchy with the percentage of people coming to work ranging from 5% to more than 60% around the country. Royal Mail added that the network of 14,220 Post Offices was operating as normal.

The company said that, as ever, it is willing to meet the union at any time. Royal Mail met Dave Ward and Billy Hayes on Wednesday evening to explain again the company’s urgent need to change, as all its major rivals in the UK postal services market have already done, if it is to thrive in an increasingly tough marketplace. Chairman Allan Leighton and Chief Executive Adam Crozier set out the very serious competitive threat facing the company and its people but the union nevertheless decided to go ahead with a second damaging 24-hour strike which started at 7pm last night.

Mr Leighton said: "Yet again the union has refused to grasp or understand the harsh commercial reality of the market in which Royal Mail now operates and the consequences for all of us if we don’t modernise - and do it quickly. Their decision to call another strike changes nothing and achieves nothing other than to damage the business and our customers and drive more of them towards the internet or to rival operators."

The facts remain:

• The mail market in the UK is declining by 2.5% per year
• Royal Mail has already lost 40% of bulk business mail to rival postal operators
• Overall this year, rivals will handle one in five of all letters posted in the UK
• Our rivals are 40% more efficient not because their people work harder but because they have already modernised and have much more technology
• Our rivals pay their people 25% less than we do at Royal Mail


Royal Mail has offered a package of pay which gives a basic pay rise of 2.5% for change as well as an £800 dividend if we hit our targets - plus the opportunity to earn a 50:50 share of any savings over and above budget.

Mr Leighton added: "This pay offer is fair and it’s what Royal Mail can afford. Hurting the business and its customers with repeated strikes will only make it more difficult to afford."

"What we are focussing on is the long term business plan agreed with our shareholder - the Government - in which £1.2 billion pounds of public funds are being invested to secure a future for this company and its people, and enable it to continue to provide great quality of service for its customers for years to come."

Mr Leighton called on the CWU to accept the absolute need to modernise and take off their block on local change in 250 operational units where changes have been agreed with our people and the union locally but blocked by the CWU at a national level.

Royal Mail remains very willing to meet the union at any time to explain the company’s position.

Ends

Issued by Royal Mail
148 Old Street
LONDON
EC1V 9HQ

Notes to editors:

The union wrote to us on March 6 setting out a series of demands including an increase in basic pay from £323 to at least £395 a week and a reduction in the working week - changes which in aggregate would cost the company over £1bn per year and be equivalent to 27% in basic pay
The average gross pay of a fulltime postman or woman is £440 a week.



www.royalmail.com