CWU Demand Focus On Quality Of Services And Employee Terms And Conditions

CWU urges the Review Panel investigating competition in the postal sector to focus on protecting quality of postal services and wages across the sector.

CWU’s phase one submission argues to:

• Extend the universal service obligation (USO) to include provision for small and medium enterprises (SME’s)
• End Royal Mail subsidy of competition in access products
• Expand new service and products
• Reform the structure and remit of Postcomm
• Defend the national postal market against EU countries that are not fully liberalised
• Keep Royal Mail publicly owned with no separation of the postal network

CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes said: "This could be the last chance saloon for the government to protect postal services. If the government gets it wrong, the British public will not easily forgive them."

The original objectives of bringing competition into the postal sector in order to improve service to customers and terms and conditions for staff have both failed. There has been continuous industrial unrest in the main post carrier, Royal Mail, which looks set to continue unless the situation changes.

Competition has led to a race to the bottom in wages and terms and conditions across the sector. This leads to industrial unrest and puts the USO at risk. The CWU believes Royal Mail needs to innovate its products and services to meet the challenge of competition and that Postcomm must change in response to the evidence that access price agreements are damaging Royal Mail’s ability to sustain the USO.

Evidence from last week’s CWU-hosted European Postal Services Conference supported the CWU’s argument that competition was introduced too quickly in the UK and with inadequate protection of the USO. Postcomm’s strategy has clearly failed as there is no competition in the end-to-end delivery market, leaving Royal Mail with the burden of this costly operation.

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