Posting on X yesterday (23 June), the union said that subject to any decision from Ofcom, discussions are continuing on USO reform in line with several principles.
These include: that any final agreement with the CWU on USO reform is also conditional on progress and implementation within the agreed timelines of the issues set out in section 5 of the agreement between Royal Mail’s new owner EP Group and the CWU.
It continued: “There will be no full deployment of USO reform until we have evaluated and remedied any issues from the ongoing pilot offices, via the agreed PIR [Post Implementation Review] process.
“We will measure the success of the pilots against the need to deliver fair and achievable workloads and hit quality of service standards. Once we have reached agreement for the full deployment of USO reform, we will agree a full deployment plan, which respects the level of change happening in the business and any potential impact on our people and customers.”
Finally, it added that to ensure maximum transparency, Royal Mail “commits to sharing more information on the ongoing pilots with the wider workforce as we look to build trust and engagement”.
The update was co-signed by Martin Walsh, deputy general secretary postal of the CWU and new Royal Mail CEO Alistair Cochrane.
Last month, Ofcom opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s compliance with regulatory obligations, after the company posted its annual delivery performance results.
Among other targets, Royal Mail must deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection; and deliver 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days of collection.
But the postal operator said it did not meet the above performance targets in 2024/25, as it delivered 76.5% of First Class mail within one working day; and delivered 92.2% of Second Class mail within three working days.
Separately, Royal Mail chief executive Emma Gilthorpe resigned as the chief executive of the postal operator last week, after just over a year in post and shortly after its sale to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský.
