Royal Mail centres across Britain could be paralysed if managers walk out on strike next month, Tribune has learned.
The Unite union said this week it would ballot its 8,535 members in Royal Mail management after the company refused to guarantee there would be no compulsory redundancies. Officials in Unite and the Communication Workers Union, which represents postal workers, said that staff at mail and delivery centres may be unable to work on health and safety grounds.
Paul Reuter, Unite’s national officer for Royal Mail, said managers were responsible for ensuring health and safety: “If managers are not there, then it’s going to be difficult to fulfil that duty of care. It’s quite possible that could affect the delivery side of it. It’s unknown territory.”
But a CWU London region official said: “Every sorting office, every administrative centre, everything will shut. It’ll have to on the grounds of health and safety.”
“You have to have someone that can assume responsibility for all eventualities.” Some CWU officials are concerned that there could be disorder if offices had to be evacuated in an emergency.
Royal Mail is seeking 1,500 redundancies among non-operational staff, in cuts which Unite expects to fall in London.
The ballot in early November will be the first time Royal Mail managers have been balloted for industrial action since 1979. Members are expected to vote on strike action and action short of a strike.
Mr Reuter said Royal Mail could rule out compulsory redundancy if it wanted to. “In the last five years, we’ve shed roughly 1,000 jobs a year without any recourse to compulsory redundancy. If the business gets away with choosing who goes on what terms then that will become the norm.”
Unite had negotiated the figure down from around 2,000, he added.
Royal Mail said this week: “We continue talking with Unite and have stressed we will continue doing our utmost to manage any job losses by voluntary means.”
The Government pressed ahead with plans to privatise the Royal Mail as it published the Postal Services Bill this week.
