‘A Royal Mail for the 21st century’

 Labour List readers don’t need to be told that Royal Mail is in a troubled situation. Earlier this month, the government warned that its quality of service was “not good enough”, with over 100 MPs calling for serious action to be taken against the company constantly missing delivery targets.

This latest wave of concern follows a Business and Trade Select Committee report in May which found that Royal Mail’s service was unacceptable and demanded a new reform of the universal service obligation (USO).

Our members in the postal sector share this stress and are all too aware that an understaffed, under-resourced company is failing to live up to the obligations expected of it by the public. Many workers are exhausted, struggling against the odds to make a difficult situation work, and are frustrated in what they do by a management which (in some cases) does not always face up to real problems at work. 

There have been welcome attempts by the new Royal Mail management and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) to overcome the problems, as well as to address and improve industrial relations in many workplaces today. But the fact is that none of these reforms or gestures are big enough to tackle the deep structural challenges the company faces. We need action now.

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This is why at this year’s Labour Conference the CWU is calling on the Labour government to intervene. The Select Committee’s recommendations should be fully implemented: we need a new regulatory framework that prioritises investment, service quality and employment standards. Ofcom’s existing approach has not overseen Royal Mail effectively and should be reviewed.

Casualised, precarious delivery work in the parcel market means that Royal Mail – with its far better working standards – is simply not operating on a level playing field. Andy Burnham has long been a critic of this type of work, which drains local economies, institutionalises poverty in millions of households, and encourages bosses to engage in a race to the bottom. It also denies the Exchequer hundreds of millions of pounds in tax revenues.

Instead of Royal Mail dropping to the standards of companies like Amazon and Evri, we believe in a race to the top. We need to move away from the model of bogus self-employment and workplace insecurity. The government should consider implementing a single employment status for workers, as well as sectoral collective bargaining, so that standards in the postal and deliveries sector can progress instead of continuing to regress.

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There should also be a new governance structure and ownership model for Royal Mail building on the government’s golden share. In recent months, the Prime Minister’s advocacy of public control for transport and water have been welcomed by the general public. Postal services should be considered in similar terms with new forms of public control, oversight and scrutiny of the company. This could also include new approaches to investment in the business, options for revenue diversification and growth, and how the community and social impact and role of the company could be enhanced.

Royal Mail isn’t just another parcel courier. It is a part of the fabric of British society, with an infrastructure very few companies share and a workforce committed to a strong ethos of public duty and service. 

Our members and the communities they serve don’t need an endless cycle of revelations, fines and empty promises: they deserve a Royal Mail which is staffed properly, organised fairly with the input of the workers who know the system best, and is regulated properly by the public and the government who benefit from the service.

The CWU’s vision for a 21st century Royal Mail is a sustainable business which delivers for its communities and workforce. In the months ahead, we hope Labour party members can stand with us in campaigning for this.  

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