Royal Mail have announced that around 2,000 managers will be made redundant over the next few months. Royal Mail redundancies will see around half of Royal Mail’s senior leaders and most senior managers lose their jobs. Front line staff will be unaffected so your local Postie’s job is safe for the moment.
“We have taken the difficult decision to consult Unite/CMA on a proposal to reduce, on a phased basis, the number of UK management roles by around 2,000 this financial year. As part of this, around half of Royal Mail’s senior leaders and most senior managers are expected to leave the Company in the next few months. The majority of overall impacted roles are expected to be in central and support areas, rather than in our field operations. We were already talking informally to Unite/CMA about these changes and will now start formal consultation.”
– Royal Mail
The Royal Mail redundancies are set against a back ground of the coronavirus pandemic accelerating a decline in letters whilst increasing the volumes of parcels sent as the business reports a 13.6% fall in operating profits to £325m for the last financial year. For the next year profits are expected to be down and there won’t be any cash to pay dividends to share holders and there will be no annual bonus for Executive Directors and Royal Mail executives in 2019-20.
While front line Posties aren’t impacted by the Royal Mail redundancies announced today, Royal Mail say that they are seeking to open talks with CWU on the need for change, future pay, and to address the issues raised in the ongoing industrial dispute. They expect that any pay inflation will be funded from productivity improvement.
The management restructure will see 2,000 out of 9,700 executives and managers leave the business with Royal Mail redundancies expected to to cost around £150 million, but with ongoing savings of £130 million in 2021-22.
“In recent years, our UK business has not adapted quickly enough to the changes in our marketplace of more parcels and fewer letters. COVID-19 has accelerated those trends, presenting additional challenges.
We are implementing a three-step plan. Firstly, we’re taking immediate action on costs, which will result in a £130 million saving in people costs next year and flat non-people costs, along with a reduction of around £300 million in capex across the Group over the next two years, to address the immediate impact of COVID-19. Regrettably, we are also proposing a management restructure impacting around 2,000 roles. We are committed to conducting the upcoming consultation process carefully and sensitively. We will work closely with our managers and their representatives during this difficult period, including supporting them as they transition into the next stage in their careers.”
– Keith Williams, interim Executive Chair, Royal Mail Group
5 Responses
This is a business that boomed during the virus. What the hells going to happen elsewhere?
Scary times!
Get ready to rumble….so many businesses in the UK run with razor thin margins. I dont shed a tear for any businesses closing that operate at a loss
My business has gone from margins of 100 percent to 10 percent due to idiots flooding the market. Needless to say once my stock has been sold its bye bye Ebay for me
Well it is not like they didn’t have alot of warning about the changes in the market place with regards to letters etc. Sadly a combination of poor management and unions that don’t like change, meant that nothing changed quickly and it was left limping behind everyone else who adapted and changed to the new world.
Funny thing is i get an email from RM every 3 months or so to say i have a new manager for this or that. Hardly job security there.
The sooner they wake up to the fact thatt he letters market is a dinosaur and the parcel markey is a massive growth are the better. Sadly i still don’t see that they truely grasp the concept.
Too much gets lost. Period. Just had eBay refund to a French buyer because Royal Mail’s Tracked and Signed tracking stopped 18 days ago. I seem to be refunding every day for Large Letters disappearing as well. Time for a change.
RM hierarchy is too complex. Once I received a letter informing about price increase, signed by “director of parcels” and “director of large letters”. Surely this job can be managed by single position? Have RM been to some corporate meetings/plannings to overlook how things should happen?