The British post office, affected by a strike, says it is acting “in response to the impact of social movements” and wishes to “adjust the size of the company”.
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The situation is tense within the British postal company Royal Mail. Losing momentum in the United Kingdom and affected by a strike, it is planning up to 10,000 job cuts by August 2023. The International Distributions Services group, the parent company, assured Friday October 14 that it had launched a consultation process for “adjust the size of the company”which today employs more than 137,000 people.
“Based on current estimates, around 5,000 to 6,000 layoffs” for the only mail delivery and processing jobs “may unfortunately be necessary”the group said. He explain to act “in response to the impact of social movements” but also “delays in achieving productivity improvements” that it wants to implement and “the drop in parcel volumes”which had been boosted by the pandemic.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), which is currently waging a strike in the company in installments over wages, condemned the decision and denounced the “obvious mismanagement” of the company. The CWU decided on a six-day strike recently and two more are planned for the end of October, to demand better wages amid the crisis in the cost of living.
The group expects an adjusted operating loss of 219 million pounds (nearly 252 million euros) for its staggered first half ended in September and an annual loss of 350 million (402 million euros). He estimates that a series of strike days penalized him by around 70 million pounds (80 million euros) in the first half of the year.