Edited by author 10-25-2003 11:50 AM
Through out the 90's Royal Mail made profit upon profit literally on the backs of Postal Workers. The continuous cuts in the running cost of the company meant that Postmen's pay, in real term, shrunk whilst the workload grew and grew. Yet, with all this profit, Royal Mail management only succeeded in losing those resources in a succession of bad investment, out side of the core business, which is currently seeing a decline to it's worst ever position. Today, if these investments had achieved their objective, management, whom took it upon themselves to waste company funds, would be proud to show their faces. However, no accountability has ever been taken for the losses.

So who are the losers from this debacle? Obviously, it is the customers and employees. The fat cat syndrome that has gripped the higher echelons of many of the larger business in this country is no less apparent with in Royal Mail than any other. The most disgraceful observation about this fact is that Royal Mail still remains a government owned organisation and the directors of this company are paid outrageous sums whilst doing their job so poorly.

Even now, when a recent fine was imposed upon Royal Mail of £7.5 million, Chairman Alan Leighton looks forward to an annual salary of well in excess of £1 million for his two days a week. How is a badly performing civil servant worthy of this degree of income? With the situation in London at the moment, with deliveries in disarray due the strike action by members of the Communication Workers Union, because Mr Leighton does not want to talk to them about the dwindle in the value of their London weighting subsidy, there seems to be no relief for customers whom want a constant and reliable service. In the event that this conundrum is finally reconciled, customers will be left with a service, detailed in a directive called the "Tailored Delivery Service," that may well see letters being delivered no earlier than 10pm and as late as 2pm. Mail could be delivered later if Royal Mail cannot cover deliveries should they not have enough staff due to there current round of staff cuts.

Royal Mail have the perfect fall back, when explaining their unsatisfactory service, blaming Post Com, the government regulator, whose purpose it is to licence and control the now open market in mail delivery services. Post Com is blamed for not allowing the price of stamps to be raised and damaging Royal Mail ability to raise enough money to become profitable again causing investment in the service to be slow if any at all. It is ridiculous that one government department has so much control over another if we do not stop to recognise that Royal Mail is a limited company and that the government does not have the income from this company immediately from the source as it had in the past. Fines, such as the current £7.5 million penalty, obviously are a remedy. It is nonsense for the government to fine the government until you see the logic. Extensively, the government has a finger in every pie when the authority of Post Com allows it to licence and fine any companies wanting to provide a postal service in order to allow the government to recover from the deterioration in the income that one time was solely provided by Royal Mail. Put this way, it is no wonder that the government is in favour of privatising Royal Mail . It is profit all round with out obligation to provide a descent service. Charge a company for a licence and fine them when they do not measure up to expectation in order to show the public that government is in control and at the same time take a hefty slice of that companies profits.