Post Office plans to turn itself into a viable multi-channel retailer could all go down the plug-hole after union bosses branded the firm’s latest 1.5% pay offer to members “appalling”.
The government-owned organisation has made a great play over its transformation plans, drafting in former RSA and More Th>n marketing boss Pete Markey as chief marketing officer.
The Post Office is also looking to hire a raft of senior marketers to support him; but both Markey and his boss, chief commercial officer Martin George, are dyed-in-the-wool marketers, who have never worked in a business which has such a turbulent relationship with the unions.
The transformation is well under way, however, as the firm has already appointed four direct marketing companies – Rapp, CACI, Aimia and Medialab – to overhaul its data strategy and get closer to customers.
But the 1.5% pay rise offer to 1,500 administrative and supply chain workers threatens to put a spanner in the works. The company’s below-inflation offer was put forward to the Communication Workers Union at the end of June but chiefs described it as an insult.
CWU national officer Andy Furey said: “The offer, which covers the 12-month period from April 2014, fails to even match the March RPI figure of 2.5%.”
Last year, the CWU staged the longest strike campaign in its history, which led to a 3.9% basic pay increase this year for employees in the Crown post office network — the network of post offices owned and operated by Post Office Ltd rather than franchisees or subpostmasters.
Furey said the offer made for admin and supply chain staff was “vastly inferior” to the deal agreed for Crown post office staff. Further negotiations are taking place this week.
“They will have to significantly improve upon the paltry offer made yesterday to avoid a break-down in negotiations,” he warned.
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Union action threatens Post Office revival http://t.co/L6w2JuAy6D #directmarketing #data #digitalmarketing #advertising