Member Info for OliGarch

I believe that RM and the CWU are in the middle of their dispute resolution process phase which has another two weeks to run. If no satisfactory conclusion then it will go to disagreement and possibly ballot papers issued.
As for CMA/Unite, who knows. They often talk the talk but never walk the walk (no pun intended)...lol

PP, RM employees are the fourth largest group of shareholders thanks to the monthly purchase scheme.

Dynamofc, I couldn't agree more with..... "then take a long hard look at Simon Thompson and his clueless board".
Today, I learnt that one of the newly appointed Regional Operating Directors (in this case it's Lee Martin, the South West ROD) has had his knuckles rapped by Dave Joye, the CWU Head of Health and Safety. It would appear that Mr Martin thinks that RM are spending too much on buildings maintenance and so has asked office managers to get OPGs to carry out minor maintenance tasks such as painting and decorating. This is all under the guise of..... dare I say it..... WCM.
Unbelievable.....

Plus knowing RM, they will then offer overtime to try and clear the backlog before QofS deteriorates (further).

Redceo, when you look at the RM obligations and then look at the competition, it's pretty obvious that RM are never going to be as efficient.
If one of our competitors has a staffing shortage in a particular region or can't/won't deliver to the Highlands and Islands they just dump their parcels on us, quite often without notice and (here's the kicker) they get a discount too!
As I have stated before. RM want to provide a seven day service. Simple mathematics will confirm that RM will need more staff and not less in order to achieve this.

I have just received notification from the RMT that Stagecoach South West have offered it's workforce a 6% deal effective from May 2022, plus a further 2% from October and a further 2% from January 2023 with further discussion for next year's offer in May 2023.
Nothing to do with RM and the CWU but I'm sure that Terry Pullinger will be looking at this closely.

So assuming that DK goes over the 30% threshold and makes the minimum offer which is then rejected, would he need to make another offer later on or is that the end of the matter?

Redceo, you are only obliged to work your contracted hours. Some chose to put their names down for extra hours if they require extra income. This applies equally to part time and full time employees.

Onelongrunner, I don't quite follow? Do you mean RM UK being taxed or the general public?

Redceo, RM employee attendance agreement
https://www.cwusouthmidspostal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Attendance-Agreement.pdf
and for pay....
https://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/community/images/pdf/2/2_f74178903b43ae5671bf3bda789ba318_Pay%20Rate%20Guide%20-%20CWU%20Represented%20ex-Letters%20Grades%20in%20Royal%20Mail%20Operations%202021.pdf

Scampthedog, I think that you are in the right ball park with somewhere between a 4.5% and 5% no strings deal and further talks to follow on the Pathway to Change agreement.

AngerSharkz, the position from the BoD and Simon Thompson is that "we need change to pay for the pay".
The proposed changes will effectively mean that in order to achieve a £66 a month wage increase, I would need to give back £187 a month in shift allowance and there are many thousands of RM employees in exactly the same position.
So, if it's a choice of the status quo or being £111 per month worse off then it's not going to get my approval.
The message also says to me that if RM staff are unwilling to take a pay cut then the RM UK side of the business could be in trouble in a couple of years as their current business model and staff agreements (that the business wanted in place not so long ago) aren't viable.
One simple solution would be to promote second class with inbuilt tracking (three day delivery)as the industry standard and raise the price of first class by a further 25%.
Just a thought.....

Interesting to note that GLS has, according to their website, 19,000 employees and made an operating profit of £342m. This equates to £18,000 profit per employee.
According to Wikipedia, Royal Mail employs 158,592 employees (although I thought that it was nearer to 140,000) and made an operating profit of £416m which equates to £2,623 per employee.
Obviously the business models are different and this has a huge impact on the figures.
If, as Simon Thompson is pointing out, RM UK is looking at 25% less profit next year and will therefore be struggling then perhaps the figures should be looked at separately and any shareholder dividend should be based solely on the GLS profit which is anticipated to be around £400m?
Also, if, as Simon Thompson is stating, any pay deal has to be self funding then what would the BoD do if the unions turned around and refused to negotiate further and the status quo remains regarding pay, allowances, start/finish times, sick pay etc as the inference is that the business is effectively saying that it cannot afford the current Ts&Cs?

AngerSharkz, as I posted on the 19th.....
Simon Thompson has warned that anticipated RM UK profits for 2022/23 would be in the region of £303m. Out of that he will need to find £127.17m for the 13.3p dividend payment in September. This will leave approximately £175m for investment/transformation into the business hence the reason that he is saying that any pay deal needs to be self funding.
In essence, he is asking me to give up my shift allowance of £187 per month. In return he will give me £37.50 per month (2%), plus £28.12 (1.5%) once we have all agreed to the changes (giving back allowances, annualised hours, Saturday and Sunday night working as part of our weekly hours, later shift start finish times, reduced sick leave terms and new entrants on different TS&Cs). Oh, and if we are really good boys and girls we may be eligible for a 2% bonus payment sometime later on in the year (probably colleague shares...lol).
On the plus side, I will be paying less tax and NICs....lol

"You’ll also find it was ‘reported’ by multiple sources (BBC, Reuters, CNN, Alliance to name a few) that profit guidance for the coming year is £303m vs £758 reported this year……wrong!"
AngerSharkz, It's strange how some (including the Royal Mail CEO) seem to utilise the operating profits of the two businesses to suit their narrative.
Simon Thompson's message is that although RM UK posted a profit of £416m for 2021/22, it is anticipated that the 2022/23 financial year will see that reduced to circa £303m if the current business model is applied.
The fact that GLS made £342m which is anticipated to rise to almost £400m over the next year, is, according to Mr Thompson, completely irrelevant to RM UK.
It wouldn't surprise me if our CEO was to become an advocate of splitting the two businesses?

AngerSharkz, so this buyback is for the benefit of the shareholders and does not financially benefit the business itself unless the business holds shares?

Out of curiosity, what value for money does the share buyback scheme give RMG?

Veteran10, by "cutting staff costs" do you mean reducing the number of staff? RM have just called around 2000 management posts. If you are alluding to cutting the number of delivery staff (currently 90,000+) then that's not going to work as RM UK are aspiring to provide a seven day service, which, given the EU Working Time Directive and simple mathematics means even more staff. Sure they could look into reducing sick pay or making every day a normal working day but they would need to get the unions (yes there are two) on board as some long standing agreements would need to be changed. Stopping overtime has been talked about however overtime gives the business flexibility plus it's cheaper to offer nine employees a little overtime over employing ten staff with no overtime.
With regards to inefficiency, my earlier reply was a bit rhetorical. There are many ways that the business could tighten up that wouldn't involve staffing cuts. There is wastage everywhere you look from ensuring that our customers are actually billed correctly (we processed £6.5m of DSA letters for free last year and apparently letters are "dead") to setting up purchasing contracts correctly. We also spend a small fortune on building contractors when we have an in-house engineering department.

Veteran10, how do you know that RM is run inefficiency?
If you know where there could be savings then please share?
You can't really compare the NHS to RM UK - they're not even close as business models?

AngerSharkz, our CEO has been going to great lengths to correct some of our staff that "the adjusted operating profit for the RM UK operation last year was £416m and is expected to fall to £303m for 2022/23".
When it comes to the pay deal, Mr Thompson is very keen to separate RM UK from GLS.

Blockfire, Team, you need to make the changes to pay for the pay.
Feeling blessed in Chobham......lol