ROYAL MAIL – IMPORTANT PARLIAMENTARY AND GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENTS
Further to LTB 56/26 which updated branches on the current talks with Royal Mail, the purpose of this LTB is to set out further Royal Mail developments with parliament and Government.
Branches will be aware that the leaders of Royal Mail have now been called to give evidence in front of the Business and Trade Parliamentary Select Committee and explain their ongoing quality of service failures. We can now confirm that the Select Committee hearing will take place on the 24th March and that Ofcom and CWU have also been invited to give evidence.
It is important to recognise the significance of these latest developments. Initially, the company were just asked to provide answers in writing to a series of questions on quality of service failures – now they must also face the scrutiny of a Select Committee hearing. Branches may have also seen that Royal Mail’s response was to say that the hearing will give them the opportunity to explain why change is necessary.
The CWU welcomes this latest development, particularly that CWU and Ofcom will also now be able to give evidence.
The union’s evidence will focus on what’s really happening on the ground, including how our members are treated and the reasons why service quality has been a long-term problem – rather than Royal Mail’s claim that these are short-term issues. In essence our submission will broadly cover the following areas:
- Why this is a Royal Mail self-inflicted customer quality and recruitment crisis, caused by their imposed/failed revisions and their decision to impose low wages and poor conditions for new starters in 2022.
- How the company has pursued a deliberate strategy to devalue a postal workers job, which combined with a toxic managerial ethos, has created chaos and demoralisation in almost every workplace across the country.
- Why there needs to be regulatory change and a level playing field to ensure fair competition between Royal Mail and its competitors.
- What needs to be done to align the interests of customers, workers, Royal Mail, Ofcom and Government on a positive vision for the future.
Further meeting with the Secretary of State
We can also report that a further tripartite meeting has been arranged between the Secretary of State, Daniel Kretinsky and the CWU on the 19th March. This meeting will be a report back session on the Governments proposal for both parties to engage in four weeks of intense talks to resolve all outstanding issues.
Next Steps
The CWU will continue to push for the voices of frontline postal workers to be heard by politicians, the public, the media and the company.
As part of this we will be undertaking the activities listed below and engaging branches, representatives and members in supporting each of these actions.
- We will ask members to speak out about what’s really happening in their local offices and to write directly to the Chair of the Select Committee Liam Byrne byrne.mp@parliament.uk
- Next week we will ask members to send a digital postcard directly to their MP’s.
- We are organising a lobby of parliament for the middle of March and will mobilise branches and representatives to attend on the day (further details of this event will follow in due course).
- In the coming weeks we will be undertaking direct online and face to face briefings with MPs.
In addition to the above activities, we have attached an MP’s brief that branches and representatives can also use to engage your local MP’s.The union will also be sending this brief directly to all MP’s. Further briefing information for MP’s and our submission to the Select Committee is also being prepared and will be sent out to branches in due course.
Finally, please ensure the content of this LTB is distributed to our members in every workplace and advise that we will be updating our members directly next week.
Any enquiries on the content of this LTB should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Office, Dawn Lynch on dlynch@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary
Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
LTB 057/26 – ROYAL MAIL – IMPORTANT PARLIAMENTARY AND GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENTS
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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