Royal Mail has responded to the latest wave of strikes by its workers, saying it would have to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of next August 2023 as it warned of financial losses due to industrial action and lower parcel volumes.
Members of the Communication Workers Union on Friday started a 24-hour walkout in a long-running dispute over pay. It has threatened up to 19 days of strike action in the buildup to the busy Christmas period.
Royal Mail warned that if the CWU followed up with its threat, annual losses “would increase materially and may necessitate further operational restructuring and headcount reduction”.
It said that under current plans the 10,000 job loss figure could include up to 6,000 redundancies. For the current fiscal year, it forecast an adjusted operating loss of around £350m, including the “direct, immediate impact of eight days of industrial action which have taken place or been notified”.
“This may increase to around a £450m loss if customers move volume away for longer periods following the initial disruption,” it added.
“The position of Royal Mail has deteriorated due to a combination of the impact of the industrial dispute, an inability to deliver the joint productivity improvements agreed with CWU under the Pathway to Change agreement, and ongoing macro-economic headwinds.”
“Although action was taken in H1 to lower labour costs, the business was unable to reduce costs quickly enough in line with deteriorating parcel volumes.”
CWU general secretary, Dave Ward, said his members “face the biggest ever assault on their jobs, terms and conditions in the history of Royal Mail”.
“The public and businesses also face the end of daily deliveries and destruction of the special relationship that postal workers and the public have in every community in the UK.”
