Member Info for OliGarch

Reuters, July 20, 2022
Operating profit at Amsterdam-based GLS was 94 million pounds in the quarter, and revenue rose 7.8%.
"A small fish in a big sea, GLS could find it difficult to compete with deeper-pocketed competitors in the international logistics business." Laura Hoy, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/royal-mail-posts-115-fall-uk-business-quarterly-revenue-2022-07-20/

Ispy, I'm voting for my new beau.... Gluteus Maximus.

RGPostie, a couple of years ago, pre-pandemic, I posted that in the first five years of privatisation RMG had handed out some £1.36bn in dividend payments and that it would have been more cost effective to have stayed under government ownership and utilised this in order to drive modernisation.

AngerSharkz, I think that a good start would be an increased offer of 5% without strings and another set of negotiations on the changes that Thompson says he needs to "pay for the pay".
Over the last two years, Royal Mail has delivered to the best of its ability given some very difficult circumstances and this is 99% down to the sheer dedication of the workforce. Profits soared but those in charge didn't take the opportunity to hold some funds back as a contingency even though they must have known that the gravy train wouldn't run forever.
I don't begrudge the shareholders a share of the spoils, however, I think that those spoils should have been shared evenly.
In my opinion, Thompson has totally mishandled the situation. Over the last year he must have clocked up an immense amount of mileage travelling the length and breadth of the UK and posting messages on the internal social media platform several times a day when he really should have been keeping his eye on the purse strings or at least making sure that his Chief Financial Officer was. Nero has been fiddling for too long.
Now he drops the bombshell that RM is making £1m a day less than at the same period last year? I assume that the autumn dividend payment is going to be paid though?
I read a post on Workplace today that simply read "Taxi 4 Thompson?"....well at least that made me smile today.

Ispy, it certainly is.

We have today served notice on Royal Mail Group for a second national ballot on change. Papers will land from next Thursday. That means we have one week to meet every member.
This is a challenge like no other but if any union can do it then it’s us.

Twitter https://twitter.com/cwunews/status/1549767066571325440?s=21&t=Px183zkb_HwMbxyHREpahQ

Facebook https://fb.watch/enPTNxxc9F/

YouTube https://youtu.be/ylCZbvOHZa0

DO NOT REPLY ??

Maximus, three times luvver?........lol
"redundancies,redundancies,redundancies"
On a personal level, I say bring it on baby. I'm now sixty and receiving my NRA60 (Government backed) final salary pension plus a nice lump sum. If redundancies are going then I have 44 years service so easily meet the minimum requirements for maximus VR plus I will receive my NRA65 without financial penalty.
On a business level, the UK Government are still going to have to employ someone to deliver what's left of the mail even if it's a skeleton workforce.
See you in the Abbeyfield.....lol

Maximus, I love it when you say my name out twice....x
Maybe you are correct and I have somehow completely misread the 2011 Postal Services Act?
If my memory serves me correctly, Herr Back attempted to ignore this piece of legislation, however it didn't work out as planned.
Perhaps Parliament will decide to amend the Act but until then......

Maximus,
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmbis/769/76906.htm
Section 31 of the 2011 Act describes the "minimum requirements" of the Universal Services, which include:
· at least one delivery of letters every Monday to Saturday, and at least one delivery of other postal packets every Monday to Friday;
· a service of conveying postal packets from one place to another by post at affordable, geographically uniform prices throughout the UK;
· a registered item service at affordable, geographically uniform prices throughout the UK.
Regardless as to whether Royal Mail flies or fails, these are the minimum service conditions.
In your opinion, what is the minimum number of postal workers that you would consider appropriate to deliver this service level?
As you were...... carry on laughing.....

From watching the video this morning, it would appear that MrT is trying to use scare tactics with regards to GLS. His constant reference to GLS being viewed as a separate company that is not connected to Royal Mail in any way is quite bizarre and makes me wonder if the split is already a done deal, after all, he took his £142k bonus in the full knowledge that RM UK was losing money so he is obviously deceitful.
From the CWU perspective, the separation of GLS could bring RM UK closer to nationalisation. If RM UK was allowed to "fail" then the UK Government are duty bound to provide a postal service that fulfills the USO. I doubt very much that there would be job losses for the rank and file as this would still require the delivery posties.

Losing a million pounds a day? Well he kept that very quiet whilst trousering his £142k bonus....

I'm expecting letter volumes to be down significantly but parcel volumes to be within 5% of the 2021 Q1 which given that we are no longer under restrictions would be a good result.
Hopefully the SP should rise to nearer 300p?

So, 85,184 staff out of a possible 158,592 staff (including managers and non union employees) means that 53.7% of ALL Royal Mail employees voted for industrial action.
Totally unprecedented.
Brexit was voted for on a smaller percentage.

19 July 2022
INDUSTRIAL ACTION BALLOT – CWU
TRADE DISPUTE WITH ROYAL MAIL GROUP,
CONSISTING OF ROYAL MAIL, PARCELFORCE AND FLEET
Our independent scrutineers' report, as required in accordance with section 231B of the Trade Union and
Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, for the above ballot which closed at Noon on Tuesday, 19 July
2022, is as follows:-
Number of individuals who were entitled to vote in the ballot 113,330
Number of votes cast in the ballot 87,315
Votes cast in the ballot as a % of individuals who were entitled to vote 77.0%
Question: Are you prepared to take part in strike action?
Number of spoilt or otherwise invalid voting papers returned 44
Result of Voting
Yes 85,184 , 97.6%
No 2,087, 2.4%

I stand to be corrected but I believe that the CWU are going to give notice of a second ballot regarding proposed changes to the legally binding Pathway to Change Agreement. If that were to be the case then I'm fairly certain that industrial action cannot be taken while there is a live ballot in place. Again, I stand to be corrected.

Redceo, I would say that it's a mixture of both financial and family, although maybe not so much these days. In the '70's my first office had around 360 staff spread across eight families plus a small minority group that weren't related to anyone else.

Arsenal, if RM didn't use seniority then they would have to advertise every vacant post and hold interviews. It would be far too messy plus there would be an appeals process which would mean that it could take several months to fill a post.
How would you determine the overriding factor for say an HGV driver (least accidents, better tachograph data or Trimble data)? What about machine operator or weekend collection driver?

Redceo "Why are so many posties long term employees?"
Many of the older, and dare I say it, more senior employees had a large percentage of their pension in the original final salary pension scheme which ended in 2012.
Prior to the 2010 Equality Act, most posties would have retired at 60 or 65 so we now have the situation whereby a postie could be 60, with 34 years in the final salary scheme (thereby receiving an 80% pension and lump sum) and still carry on working. It's a no brainer.

simx, "Ofcom fine us £50mfor poor service, and at the same time, penalise us for trying to make enhancements to quality... and all in the name of the universal service obligation . Is there a thing in business law that says you can't improve your product, make it better than your rivals product?"
Unfortunately, OFCON seems to have an unwritten agenda to screw RM over at every opportunity. Before DSA could be introduced, RM was forced to "dispose of" many lucrative business contracts in order to break the monopoly and give the competition a chance, to the extent that RM were deliberately pricing themselves out of the market. It now seems that RM cannot even give a premium product away so I'm assuming that there must be some sort of anti-competition clause in the small print?
So, the bottom line is that, for the next five years, RM are stuck with letter delivery six days a week, still require 90,000+ delivery posties and still have to provide an affordable second class postage product. This means that these overheads are pretty much fixed.
More bad news for MrT to take into the AGM on Wednesday.