Up to 80 Post Offices may be closed or privatised and the CWU doesn’t much like that so Post Office workers are to be balloted for strike action.
The Post Office say that they are disappointed by the CWU decision’s to ballot for strike action, stressing they want to work constructively with the unions as they continue to make vital changes to protect Post Office services for customers for years to come.
The Post Office is urging the CWU to meet with it at ACAS to find a resolution to this matter and is reassuring customers that no strike action has been called and that should any action take place it has contingency plans to minimise disruption to customer service. Postmasters and their teams working in 97% of the Post Office’s 11,600 branches will not be part of any ballot for strike action.
Kevin Gilliland, Post Office Network and Sales Director said: “We’ve made steady progress in making our business simpler to run, reducing costs to the taxpayer whilst at the same time modernising our network which provides essential services to communities throughout the UK. We are making it better for customers providing unprecedented ease of access to our services through longer opening hours. We’re now the largest retailer open on Sundays, with 3,800 of our branches open seven days a week“.
Of course one of the reasons that branches open longer hours and more days a week is because so many are privatised and operated by staff employed by local shops such as Coop, WHSmith or Tesco. That again is part of the issue the CWU has, if more Post Offices are transferred to local shops, existing staff may well be made redundant as the shops employ their own staff to run Post Office services.
The Post Office say “We will give serious consideration to any ideas that the CWU put forward to help us create the Post Office network our customers need for the future and urge them to work in partnership with us to secure the future of our services“.
Will it affect your business? It shouldn’t – You can print postage online and Royal Mail will allow you to drop your parcels at your local Delivery Depot. Even if your Post Office is hit by strike action at some point this summer you shouldn’t suffer too much inconvenience as a result.
2 Responses
It needs to be clearly pointed out that this is a Post Office dispute and not a walkout by posties.
I’ve already heard one radio news bulletin get this wrong today, so it’s important to be clear.
The downgrading of post offices and moving into convenience stores will affect the level of service for customers.
Whilst, I don’t approve of industrial action, it’s clear the government (who still own the post office) and management are not interested in customer service.
All this is to save approx. £300 million in total ,a figure which HMG p*sses away roughly every 30 seconds. It’s not a siginificant sum to the country as a whole, but a legacy of the Osborne/ Cameron slash and burn policies.
Branches are still being closed and I’ve mentioned before the ludicrous 9am and 7am “final” collection times on most pillar boxes now.
We now live in a country where if one shoe wears out, it’s better to cut your leg off and hop on crutches, rather than spend on a new pair of shoes.
Post office branches are an important part of society and communities in Britain and should be retained and turned into hubs for internet deliveries for all the carriers, not just royal mail. This would safeguard them for the future.