Royal Mail on ‘brink of collapse’ as 400 staff quitting each week, union warns

Royal Mail is losing around 400 postal staff members each week following the rollout of a new delivery system, according to the postal workers union.

Warning that the business is "on the brink of collapse", the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has called for an urgent summit with the Government to discuss its future.

According to the CWU, the firm was losing around 330 postal employees weekly from its 83,000 workforce prior to launching DM26, an initiative designed to reorganise routes and improve delivery performance.

However, a CWU spokesperson told The Independent that the rollout is a “major factor” behind employees leaving, along with pay issues and unmanageable workloads.

The union has called for the rollout of a new delivery model to be paused, claiming the new system is not working in hundreds of offices.

To avert a "serious crisis", the CWU stated that the Government must join formal talks alongside union representatives and management.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: "We are calling for a summit between stakeholders and the Government to address the ticking timebomb that is Royal Mail.

"Royal Mail has been in structural decline for well over a decade, and the continuous failure to deliver quality of service is killing the brand, demoralising the workforce, and letting down the communities that postal workers are proud to serve."

“At this stage, it doesn’t matter what delivery model is adopted. Unless the company faces up to its self-inflicted recruitment and retention crisis, the company is on the brink of collapse.

“For years, we have had select committees, promises of £500 million improvement plans, a broad array of agreements and threats to improve from Ofcom.

“Yet nothing has changed, every agreement reached has never been honoured, and Ofcom’s only role has been to favour competition over improving Royal Mail, with its universal service obligation.

“Royal Mail is in serious need of a business vision that provides dignified work for employees and quality service for consumers and communities.

“The time for developing and implementing this vision is long overdue, and we must begin the work now.”

The CWU claimed the Royal Mail was on the “brink of collapse.”

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The rollout of our new delivery model is now 90% complete across our 1,200 delivery offices and we are continuing to see positive results – delivering on average to 95% of addresses every day across the UK, up from 88% before deployment.

“The rollout continues across our network and we expect quality of service to improve as deployment progresses.

“These reforms are an important part of our plan to deliver a more reliable, efficient and financially sustainable Universal Service for customers across the UK.”

Royal Mail is hiring 22,000 temporary workers over the Christmas period to help transport, sort and deliver the additional mail expected over the festive period.

It has acknowledged there is more to do on meeting delivery targets and published an improvement plan in April which included a commitment to invest £500 million in quality of service over five years.