Member Info for OliGarch

Anyway Crystalball, I'm going to hock in my RM shares just as soon as Wolves sends me the link to purchase GLS shares as they could possibly be in profit to the tune of around £365m a year so it would be good to get in on the ground floor......lol

Crystalball, this could be an ongoing issue for lots of businesses and also potentially for schools as the new school year begins.
With regards to the share price, it seems that lately there is a fluctuation between £1.63 and £1.80 and this has become a cycle.

Arsenal, wise words for Wolves to dwell on indeed.
BTW, a good victory over my boys last Saturday which means yet another year in Europe for the Gooners despite an awful league campaign.

Wolves, "it’s GLS that’s making money and propping up the group as a whole, so Dynamo and oligarch you’re just splitting hairs".
I have been looking on Google for the GLS share price but I can't see it anywhere, any idea what it is?

Wolves, do you genuinely believe that RM are going to post a loss of £365m for the 2020/21 financial year?
If that were truly the case we can seriously expect that the business will go into administration sometime around Christmas.
You do make me laugh!

Mike1974, "instead should be negotiating for the best possible VR terms for those that are willing to go, that way there's a more efficient and profitable business with a secure long term future for the RM employees and CWU membership".
Why would RM pay out for VR to CWU represented grades when there is a natural wastage rate of around 7,000 OPG grades? Anyway, if this virus is going to hang around for a while surely RM will need more posties not less?

Mike1974, "thus far they've had a stance of opposing all and any job losses simply because they want to keep their membership numbers".
You are correct. That is absolutely the position of the CWU because they are most definitely serving the interests of their membership (because without the CWU we would all be on minimum wage and 28 days leave) but it doesn't mean that they aren't willing to work with RM management as the statement from Stuart Simpson says.
The other alternative would be that joke of a union called CMA/UNITE.

"I am pleased to say that we are now making real progress in many of these areas and we welcome the positive commitment and approach the CWU has shown that recognises the significant financial and operational challenges that our business faces. Both the CWU and Royal Mail teams have put a lot of work into rebuilding trust between us as we work through these discussions."

So in response to all the CWU bashing anti unionist shareholders and investors please note that the CWU are happy to engage with Royal Mail to achieve a positive outcome.
The problem with investors is that they are greedy and all too quick to lash out at all and sundry when they see their investment go bad. My message is "don't gamble what you can't afford to lose".
Remember, when the fun stops.....STOP!

AB, I have not seen this video before. Sadly RM had the opportunity to blow the competition into the weeds but unfortunately privatisation has not achieved this partly due to the fact that it is still shacked to heavy regulation. The government don't want RM but won't let it become a "fully" privatised business in the same way as it's competition. The CWU know this and use it to great advantage.

AB, I find that downing a Nytol capsule alongside a generous JD & Coke does the trick just as well...lol.
Good luck with the reading.
On the subject of employment law it will be interesting to see how employers handle the recent "Spanish" fiasco with employees having to quarantine for 14 days when they return to the UK. I wonder how many will have been in their current employment less than 2 years and therefore have virtually no employment rights?
I saw an interview with Dominic Raab and his response was that "employers should do the right thing" and that they "can't just fire staff for going into mandatory quarantine". Call me a cynic but I would imagine that some employers will use this to downsize their workforce or on the flip side some employees may just decide to risk the potential £1000 fine as it only comes into effect of the authorities are unable to contact you on 3 occasions.
You can also get around quarantine by flying from Spain to France and then on to the UK so it's a bit of a nonsense really.

AB, "That could be a scenario but while we are on this , and here is a question I don’t know the answer on , that bit when you said Uk gov take on letters - are they duty bound , would it go for tender or something like that . What’s the scenario of uk gov say “not up to us” could they do that in this scenario and what happens next "
You need to read the National Audit Office report on The Privatisation of the Royal Mail. It explains the Government's obligations and what would happen if it was to fail.

Talk2Much, this situation goes back a long way. The CWU (previously NCU) fought the government for many decades to bring RM employees the Ts&Cs that they currently enjoy and have improved the lives of many hundreds of thousands of people, not just the employees but also their families. The business was originally set up as a communications network for the benefit of the nation and even extended to British colonies. It was never set up as a profit making entity. Although privatisation had been talked about since the 1970s not even the staunchest Tory would dare go down that route for fear of the backlash from the public so when the Cameron/Cable government decided to go ahead it was always going to be a struggle due to the fact that the government wanted it to be a private company but still bound by the rules of nationalisation.
Yes, the staff wage bill is much higher per head than the competition (actually Germany wanted to bring in a minimum wage for all postal workers in 2008 but the EU High Court ruled it illegal later that year) but that's not the fault of the employees or the CWU.
Royal Mail employs around 160,000 staff which is around 0.6% of the entire UK workforce of around 26 million and as such employs a cross section of UK life so as well as thousands of hard working and dedicated staff there will sadly be a small minority of "shirkers" who will get disproportionately large publicity.
It is accepted by both RM and the CWU that change needs to happen and fast but unfortunately this journey should have begun way before 2013.
Incidentally, RM had parcel automation in the 1960s and a very good R&D facility in Swindon but it was downsized over the years by successive governments which has turned out to be very short sighted as we should have been ahead of the competition but as most government ministers are only in power for a short term they are only interested in short term gains.

I thought that it had been identified that work places such as meat/fish production plants were at a higher risk because the temperatures were around +4 degrees with a moist atmosphere which is apparently the perfect breeding ground for Norovirus?
It will be interesting to see what happens in autumn when the temperatures drop and it gets a bit foggy or misty!

Wolves, you don't have to be a shareholder to join this forum. Sometimes it is interesting or funny or infuriating to know what a cross section of the shareholders really think of the employees. It can also be quite amusing to see comments from some shareholders who simply haven't got a clue as to how the business is run and therefore as to how their investment may fare.

Dynamofc, that was the year that the "Colleague Share Scheme" was supposed to pay out (2009 or 2010?).
RM have a good track record of posting poor figures for first three quarters and then finding a couple of hundred million down the back of the sofa in the last quarter.
If we really are losing £360m a year then it won't be long before the baliffs turn up...lol

Wolves, I'm assuming that your statement "automation= profit= job losses" refers to management?
Surely automation should lead to efficiency which in turn should lead to more jobs for OPG grades as we will need to increase our delivery workforce in order to meet demand?
As for losing £1m per day? I place the blame squarely on senior management. These are the very people who get paid millions of pounds a year to make sure that this doesn't happen and to compound the misery, RM have given out £1.35m in dividend payments since July 2014 when it should have been using this to transform the business. You really couldn't make it up!
Speaking hypothetically but if there were to be job losses in the CWU represented grades who do you think would be out of the door first? I believe that it's "last in, first out" in PLC world which would leave you in a precarious position but not to worry because the CWU have your back on this one ;-)

Idedat, the SP seems to defy logic at times. I thought that it would drop by at least 10% after yesterday's RNS.

What dividend?.....lol
There is no dividend because the shareholders are having to pay towards the transformation programme cost.

I think that the takeaway here is not the percentages but the volumes and it is serious. 788 million fewer letters countered by only 117 million more parcels is a 1:6.7 ratio so we would need to be making at least 6.7 times as much on a parcel over a letter in order to break even. Clearly that's not the case. On the bright side, GLS are up 22% on volumes but it's a pity that no numbers were attached.

Wolves, I could point to dozens of different areas in my office that could be run more efficiently, from our waste collection management system to allowances that are paid out to workers who no longer perform that task but keep the allowance under reserved rights.
I'm not sure that the majority of shareholders would be particularly bothered as most shareholders are not ethical as they just want to return a quick profit. The problem with the PLC world is that everyone wants to make a profit or wants something for nothing. It's human nature.