UNION WARNS ROYAL MAIL LOSING 400 STAFF WEEKLY

Royal Mail is losing around 400 postal workers a week following the rollout of a new delivery system, the Communication Workers Union has said. The union said the company is "on the brink of collapse" and called for an urgent summit with the Government to discuss its future. CWU general secretary Dave Ward said the talks should address what he called "the ticking timebomb that is Royal Mail". He said the union wants the Government, union representatives and management to meet formally to avert what it describes as a "serious crisis".

According to the CWU, Royal Mail was already losing around 330 staff a week from its 83,000-strong workforce before introducing DM26, a system meant to reorganise delivery routes and improve performance. A CWU spokesperson said the DM26 rollout is a "major factor" in the departures, alongside pay issues and unmanageable workloads. The union has called for the rollout to be paused, saying the new system is not working in hundreds of delivery offices. The departures come as Royal Mail approaches its busiest period of the year, in the run-up to Christmas.

Ward said Royal Mail has been in "structural decline for well over a decade", accusing the company of failing to honour agreements aimed at improving its service. He pointed to scrutiny from parliamentary select committees, a promised £500 million improvement plan and repeated threats of action from the regulator Ofcom, saying none had changed the situation. He said Ofcom's role had favoured competition over improving Royal Mail's universal service obligation. Ward said the company needs a business vision providing "dignified work for employees and quality service for consumers and communities", and said this work is now overdue.