Royal Mail plans to make 6,000 staff redundant by August

The company said in a trading update this morning that it aims to reduce its overall headcount by 10,000 with the majority of cuts made through redundancy.

It comes a day after workers staged a 24-hour strike in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said 115,000 of its members across the UK took action on Thursday.

Last month, the union announced 19 days of strike action in the build-up to the busy Christmas period and will cover Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

In its report, Royal Mail said it expects to make an annual operating loss of about £350m in the year to the end of March 2023.

The company, which employs around 140,000 people, said: “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.”

“Wherever possible, we will look to achieve FTE rightsizing through reductions in overtime, temporary staff and natural attrition.”

Royal Mail’s chief executive Simon Thompson 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."

Following the announcement, the CWU tweeted that the statement was “nothing but an intimidation tactic”.

Its general secretary, Dave Ward, said the announcement “is the result of gross mismanagement and a failed business agenda of ending daily deliveries, a wholesale levelling-down of the terms, pay and conditions of postal workers, and turning Royal Mail into a gig economy style parcel courier”.

“Postal workers face the biggest ever assault on their jobs, terms and conditions in the history of Royal Mail.

“The public and businesses also face the end of daily deliveries and destruction of the special relationship that postal workers and the public have in every community in the UK.”