Postmasters ‘unsatisfied’ by Post Office’s latest remuneration review

Retailers have been left “unsatisfied” by the Post Office’s (PO) annual remuneration review announced last month, according to multiple groups.

Announced on 27 March, measures include a one-off payment equal to 15% of each branch’s March variable remuneration. The figure is attributed to a profit-share from the PO’s online sales, including its online parcels arm launched last year. The bump will be paid out this month and is worth nearly £5m for all affiliated stores.

However, when asked about its member survey on the £2,600 average bump, the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) said: “The vast majority of postmasters feel the amount is too low, and that PO are not listening.”

A poll carried out by the NFSP also found that 91% of postmasters felt the £30m is “too low”, with one postmaster describing the 15% one-off payment as “disgraceful especially for the work done”.

Another postmaster said the figure “is a step in the right direction”. The survey also revealed that just 9% of all NFSP members felt the PO was listening to them.

Retailer and CWU rep Sean Hudson claimed a rise of £713m would be needed to restore real-terms branch pay to 2013’s levels, more than 20 times PO’s latest raise. 

Postmaster response 

Sophie Towers, owner of One Stop Kibble Bank in Burnley, Lancashire, expressed the review “should have been made a public discussion”.

“My PO is open for more than 100 hours a week, and I don’t think you get away with that in another job,” she said. “Nobody spoke to me about it – I didn’t get an email or [letter]. We all know it’s not a great situation at the moment, unless they step up and do something better.”

Vince Malone, of Tenby Stores in Pembrokeshire added: “This underlines some of [PO’s] behaviour we see as postmasters. It’s great there’s more money
available, but there needs to be better discussions on what it means for postmasters. it came as a surprise that it wasn’t discussed with us as an
employee around our expectations.”

Jonathan Cobb, of Miserden Stores in Stroud, stressed: “[The remuneration] is so small, it’s not even worth thinking about. It’s not on our radar, the PO income. We keep the PO because it’s a community essential, but the PO doesn’t support the shop, the shop supports the PO. Any increase is a
good increase, but the remuneration doesn’t support [the store].”

A PO spokesperson responded to the claims: “We fully recognise that postmasters are not immune to the current challenging economic environment. Our
focus remains on driving footfall to our branches and the remuneration opportunities for postmasters.

“We already know that branches providing DPD and Evri delivery services are seeing more and more footfall, and we will continue to roll out delivery and
click and collect parcel services throughout our network, coupled with working with postmasters to help them raise awareness locally that their branch
provides everyday banking services.”

Operational Excellence Initiative

The NFSP has also expressed that postmasters require “help and support now” due to the rise in costs associated with providing PO services, and this is despite the PO’s recent announcement that it is rolling out a large long-term funding model change called ‘Operational Excellence Initiative’.

Through this, the PO aims to pay branches for the previously unpaid back-office activities that are vital in running a PO.

“Postmasters will have the opportunity to boost total variable remuneration by up to 5% each month”, a PO statement explained. The level of payout is based on meeting daily cash declarations, cash pouch remittances, cash holdings and monthly trading period accounting requirements.

However, a NFSP spokesperson said: “The financial benefit of PO’s Operational Excellence Initiative will not be fully realised until September. Whilst we do not agree with the delay, it will give us the opportunity to support and help colleagues to understand how this work can benefit them individually.

“When Operational Excellence is launched, we want to hit the ground running to ensure postmasters immediately benefit from the financial increase.”