By Leah Montebello
As many as 5,000 Royal Mail staff could lose their job by next summer as the firm tries to counter losses driven by strike action and stunted growth plans.
The firm said that it expects a full year adjusted operating loss to tumble to £350m, including the direct, immediate impact of eight days of industrial action which have taken place or been notified to Royal Mail, but excluding any charges for voluntary redundancy costs.
In a trading update this morning, it also warned this figure could increase to around a £450m loss if customers move volume away for longer periods following the initial disruption.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) kicked off its planned 19 day strike action yesterday over worker pay.
Royal Mail said today if these go ahead in full “the loss for the full year would increase materially and may necessitate further operational restructuring and headcount reduction”.
“The ongoing uncertainty means that the Board is unable to give a clear outlook for the full year. Additionally, this situation may lead to an impairment of the carrying value of the Royal Mail business when H1 results are published on 17 November,” it added.
To combat this loss, it said 5,000 full time jobs will need to be culled by March 2023“to better match our costs to current parcel and letter volumes”.
Operational full time equivalent workforce will then need to reduce by an estimated 10,000 by the end of August 2023.
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