A Royal Mail Group postal worker on his delivery round in Manchester, U.K.
Paul Thomas | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Royal Mail revealed plans Friday to cut up to 6,000 jobs by next summer following a summer of strikes by postal workers in the U.K.
“We will be starting the process of consulting on rightsizing the business in response to the impact of industrial action, delays in delivering agreed productivity improvements and lower parcel volumes,” Royal Mail’s parent group, recently renamed International Distributions Services, said in a release.
“Based on current estimates, c.5,000-6,000 redundancies may be required by end of August 2023.”
The group on Friday reported a half-year adjusted operating loss of £219 million ($247.2 million), citing around £70 million of direct negative impact from three days of postal worker strikes.
CNBC reported last week that leaders of the CWU (Communication Workers’ Union) were talking with Royal Mail bosses, including CEO Simon Thompson, as the company looks to avert a further 16 days of industrial action threatened by the union.
International Distributions Services expects to make a full-year operating loss of around £350 million, including the “direct, immediate impact of eight days of industrial action which have taken place or been notified to Royal Mail.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.
