Planned Post Office boycotts by members of the public outraged over the Horizon scandal will “endanger the existence” of branches, the CWU has warned.
Following the airing of the ITV docudrama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, an apology by the Post Office on Facebook attracted more than 900 mostly negative comments, with some claiming they are boycotting Post Office services.
One commenter said: “Everyone should boycott the Post Office, I know I will from now on.”
“Disgraceful, private couriers and carriers for all our business parcels [from] now on,” said another.
In response, the Communication Workers Union’s subpostmaster branch secretary Sean Hudson wrote: “A boycott by members of the public will serve no other purpose than to endanger the existence of these community branches which rely heavily on counter transactions to make the services they offer even remotely financially viable.”
He continued: “Those members of the public who are quite rightly outraged by this and want to show their support should best do so by writing to their MPs, messaging them or sharing the message many postmasters have put up on their own social media pages about the second ongoing Post Office scandal – that of remuneration to serving subpostmasters that in most cases does not even come close to the minimum wage.”
The message shared by postmasters includes recent analysis by Better Retailing showing the average branch received just a 1.4% annual remuneration increase, a real-terms pay cut. The message described falling pay as “the second scandal”.
The ITV drama stars Toby Jones as Alan Bates, the subpostmaster who led the fight to prove errors in the Post Office’s Horizon till system cost retailers their livelihoods, freedom and even their lives. The publicity from the drama spawned a new wave of public pressure on the government to intervene in addressing the scandal and the future direction of the Post Office.
The Post Office’s apology on Facebook stated: “We sincerely apologise to victims for the devastating impact of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal on the lives of so many. We are doing all we can to provide redress and urge anyone affected who has not yet come forward to do so.”
The CWU said it would be awaiting the conclusion of the ITV drama before commenting further.
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I am in dispute resolution with the PO having fallen foul of Horizon, but I still use my local branches. There is no point whatsoever in boycotting the PO. All this will achieve is beleaguring current sub-postmasters who have done nothing wrong. Their bosses have wrecked the brand and are already treating them badly with renumeration, but they have invested heavily in their businesses and do not deserve to be boycotted.