Royal Mail to cut up to 6,000 jobs by next August
ROYAL Mail plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs by the end of August next year.
And as many as 10,000 roles could be cut by the end of 2023 as the firm remains locked in a pay spat with its largest labour union.
Approximately 5,000 roles will be cut, with the remaining roles - up to another 5,000 - to be axed through redundancies.
The postal service's parent company, International Distributions Services, announced the news today.
It follows a series of big strikes this year held by The Communication and Workers Union (CWU), which represents 115,000 Royal Mail postal workers.
Royal Mail currently employs 140,000 people.
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The union is battling over pay and conditions on behalf of workers with Royal Mail.
The company offered a 3 per cent pay rise in June, which called "insulting" as inflation soars.
Strikes have been announced on 19 days including Black Friday and in the run up to Christmas - the first of which took place yesterday.
Previous action took place in August and September.
Royal Mail will post an adjusted operating loss of around £350 million this year because of the strike disruption, International Distributions Services forecast.
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It said there could be more job losses at Royal Mail if strikes went ahead during the holiday period.
Simon Thompson, chief executive at Royal Mail, said: "This is a very sad day. I regret that we are announcing these job losses. We will do all we can to avoid compulsory redundancies and support everyone affected.
"We have announced today losses of £219 million in the first half of the year.
"Each strike day weakens our financial situation.
"The CWU's decision to choose damaging strike action over resolution regrettably increases the risk of further headcount reductions.
"We call on the CWU leaders to immediately call off their planned strike action and accept our invitation to enter talks through Acas to find an urgent resolution to our change and pay dispute."
The CWU represents people working for telephone, cable, digital subscriber line and postal delivery companies.
It comes as it was revealed Royal Mail could be making another major shake-up to slash costs.
Households could be waiting until after 6pm for the postie to come, with 17 areas across the UK earmarked for the change.
The firm is looking to scrap Saturday post deliveries in an attempt to cut costs as £1million is lost every day.
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In other Royal Mail news, an urgent warning has been issued over millions of stamps that could become worthless
And here's what to do if your parcel is lost, stolen or damaged.