Ofcom Announcement on Royal Mail USO: Union Response

Responding to today’s announcement that OFCOM have indicated support for a change to the USO obligation for Royal Mail, CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: “The CWU recognises that Royal Mail now operates in a permanently changed world of communications and accepts the need for change to the specification of the Universal Service Obligation (USO).

“The sustainability of the USO is our utmost priority, and we have long called for reforms that benefit both customers and postal workers in order to enable investment in new growth areas and secure the long-term future of Royal Mail.

‘However, Royal Mail has been trialling these changes in delivery offices across the country and there are clear problems on the ground.

‘These changes are not a ‘one-stop solution’ for the problems in the postal service – the real culprit behind these issues is Royal Mail’s inability to properly recruit and retain staff, which has led to workloads piling up in delivery offices and vital letters being left behind.

‘The new owners of Royal Mail must ensure that the culture of mismanagement and inferior pay and conditions for new staff does not continue under their leadership.

“The CWU has reached an agreement with the new owners that guarantees no compulsory redundancies and the levelling up of new entrant’s terms and conditions as a result of this change.

“In addition, we need to see the government intervene with Ofcom, who have failed in their duty as a regulator, and ensure that there is a level-playing field when it comes to regulating parcel courier giants like Amazon.

“It is in the interest of customers and postal workers that these changes are implemented in the right way, and the CWU will be at the heart of this.

“We will continue working with both the new owners of Royal Mail and the government to ensure that we are all able to benefit from a reliable, more innovative and sustainable postal service for generations to come.”

ENDS

For further enquiries, please contact CWU Press Officer Marcus Barnett at mbarnett@cwu.org.