Royal Mail in the red with huge losses thanks to strikes

ROYAL MAIL reported a £1 billion (€1.15 billion) loss for the year ending March 26.

Bosses blamed industrial action by employees and a failure to increase productivity during 12 months in which 10,000 jobs were cut.

International Distributions Services (IDS), Royal Mail’s owner, announced an overall loss of £748 million (€869 million) compared with a £577 million (€861 million) profit a year earlier.

IDS said Royal Mail was in the red mainly due to strikes by “unionised staff” over pay and working conditions.  This unrest ultimately led to the departure of Royal Mail’s chief executive Simon Thompson who resigned on May 12 after only two years in the post, although he will remain until October as IDS seeks a fourth chief executive in as many years.

Royal Mail’s owners also attributed the postal service’s losses to its “inability to deliver the in-year benefits of planned productivity improvements.”

Although the company has finally thrashed out a deal which the union agreed to put to its membership in April, Royal Mail has been affected by the consequences of a drop in demand for Covid test deliveries.  There was also a dip in delivering online shopping, which had flourished during the pandemic.