By Royal Mail to cut jobs amid ongoing postal delays
Royal Mail is set to cut hundreds of jobs in an attempt to cut costs after growing competition from it’s rivals.
The move, which is part of a restructuring plan, will see nearly 700 management jobs cut.
The firm has recently come under blast for ongoing postal delays as they struggle to keep up with Covid related absences.
Severe delays have been recored due to the issue, with regulator Ofcom stating it may impose fines where services have fallen short.
Some customers have complained about waiting up a month for important deliveries, including medical prescriptions.
Ofcom, the regulator, said recently that is was “concerned about these delays and have made it clear to Royal Mail that it must take steps to improve its performance as the effects of the pandemic subside”.
In early January more than one in 10, or roughly 150,000, staff were off sick or isolating.
In the first year of the pandemic postal delivery companies saw rising demand for its services as people switched to shopping online at home.
Over the past year as, High Street stores open again, that demand has fallen back, but Royal Mail chairman Keith Williams said the trend for higher numbers of parcels being delivered remained.
The volume of domestic parcels being delivered by Royal Mail between October and December was 33% above pre-pandemic levels in 2019, but 7% lower than in 2020.
However, the number of letters Royal Mail handled in the October to December period declined in both 2020 and 2021.
Royal Mail said the latest planned job cuts would incur a charge of £70m but would deliver annual savings of around £40m.
The company axed a fifth of its managers – around 2,000 posts – in June 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic.
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