The plot thickens! Got sent this earlier. We could be going into admin...... 9 months after record profits
This from a well connected union guy.
Royal Mail have a business plan which has a total cost sum attached to it. It is unacceptable to the workforce so the CWU have been negotiating to change and mitigate these change proposals and in doing reducing the predicted savings from the business plan.
In addition we want a decent pay rise which is either backdated or with a cash lump sum attached.
This means for Royal Mail they are saying that this potentially means when it goes to the city analyst to see if Royal Mail under the new agreement will still be a going concern going forward that the sum of the business plan is reduced.
That decision is vital and is linked to the independent auditors signing off the accounts and banks continuing to give Royal Mail credit etc.
If that does not happen then we are into a totally new arena of potentially administration.
This has an impact on our dispute as the board will be relieved of their duties and the government appointed administrator who will have no interest in settling pay or mitigate change activity it will be to cut costs while delivering the USO.
This is the reason why the union has stayed in the talks. We are not blind to what is happening in the field and units.
We genuinely believe an agreement as imperfect as it might be is better than no agreement. We also believe that the progress we have made on a range of issues including later start times and independent review into the flawed discipline cases are the best ways of resolving those issues.
However we are getting to a point that unless we get that agreement by the end of the weekend , we will have no choice but to take action even with all the risks as we can never accept some of the proposals still on the table.
In addition Royal Mail have a board meeting next Wednesday which is their deadline for any agreement due to their financial statement which has to be made on 17th May and it has to go through auditors etc before.
To say we are at the most serious situation in my 39 years in the job is an understatement and whilst I understand the frustration, do you really believe if we just wanted to be popular by announcing strike action and everything will go away ?
No it is likely that Royal Mail step up their executive action in a desperate last opportunity to reduce costs to satisfy those who they need to keep out of administration.
However we now are getting to that point when we need to test whether Royal Mail need an agreement more than some of their unworkable plans and this includes trials on Mail centres doing delivery offices on IPS and prep.
Those calling for action will likely get your wishes but remember there are no options now without serious risks
