High stakes

National operations director Simon Barker held an RMtv Live question and answer session with colleagues from across our pipeline at Manchester Mail Centre.

Simon answered a number of questions from colleagues on issues that are important to them as well as Royal Mail’s reaction to the CWU ballot for industrial action.

‘We are very disappointed the CWU decided to ballot for industrial action,’ said Simon. ‘However, we want to resolve this in a way that protects our business, our colleagues and our reputation with customers.’

Colleagues were interested to understand what impact industrial action would have and Simon was clear that even the threat of industrial action harms our business, making it harder for Royal Mail to pay for our industry-leading terms and conditions. He said that we’re committed to working with the CWU to seek a resolution and to continue providing our customers with the high-quality service they expect from us.

Simon was asked why the second hour of the Shorter Working Week had not been implemented. He said, ‘The Shorter Working Week must pay for itself. As a business we want to grow, but we can’t rely on a falling workload to fund these reductions. Therefore, we must improve how efficiently we can process letters and parcels.

‘Trials have been proposed on new delivery methods and digital work tools and are a key part of helping our people improve productivity in their offices – this will help fund the Shorter Working Week.’

Other questions asked were around future investment in parcel automation to offset the decline in letters and growth in parcels, and concerns around workloads and how we can be more effective with the offering of products such as PPI to ensure that we’re paid fairly for what we do.

Look out for the highlights of this RMtv Live coming soon on Content on Demand.