Royal Mail service review ‘predetermined’, union leader claims | Business News

CWU leader Dave Ward tells Sky News he has no religion within the looming session to be launched by Ofcom on Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation.

A review of Royal Mail’s letter supply obligations that might see Saturday publish scrapped is “predetermined”, based on an business union leader.

Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) common secretary Dave Ward was reacting to a narrative by Sky News on Saturday that regulator Ofcom was to launch a session on choices for reforming the Universal Service Obligation (USO).

Loss-making Royal Mail has lengthy complained that postal deliveries six days every week will not be financially viable resulting from a collapse in letter volumes.

The USO was final checked out greater than a decade in the past.

Sources instructed Sky’s City editor Mark Kleinman that the Ofcom doc, anticipated on Wednesday, wouldn’t comprise conclusions or agency suggestions however would as a substitute set out concepts for preserving the common postal service in a sustainable kind.

But the CWU mentioned it feared the USO doubtlessly being obliterated, maybe to simply three days every week.

It claimed that such a transfer would place tens of hundreds of jobs in danger amongst frontline postal employees as the corporate continues to prioritise extra profitable parcels enterprise.

Mr Ward, in his interview with Sky News on Monday morning, mentioned: “I do not assume any postal employee can be blind for the necessity for change however… we expect the entire of Ofcom’s method is an entire sham.

“It’s about getting to a predetermined outcome and we’re not going to sit back and allow Ofcom, Royal Mail, the government, to destroy what is an important public service which customers still support and you can actually still expand upon with new products and services.”

The difficulty threatens to reignite hostilities between the union and IDS-owned Royal Mail.

A collection of strikes forward of Christmas 2022 noticed relations between the pair descend to a brand new low, with Royal Mail’s 112,000 employees later accepting a new pay settlement in return for reforms together with common Sunday working.

The dispute lasted greater than a yr.

Royal Mail, which mentioned it was dropping £1m a day in the course of the turbulent interval for industrial relations, noticed a marked restoration in operational efficiency and buying and selling over the essential Christmas interval, based on IDS.

But its chief govt, Martin Seidenberg, mentioned on the time of the buying and selling replace: “With Ofcom resulting from publish choices for the way forward for the Universal Service imminently, now could be the time for pressing motion.

“We are doing all we are able to to rework, however it’s merely not sustainable to keep up a supply community constructed for 20 billion letters once we are actually solely delivering seven billion.”

Asked in regards to the prospect of Saturday deliveries disappearing, the prime minister’s official spokesman mentioned that Rishi Sunak was of the “robust view” that they offered flexibility and comfort and had been essential for companies.