VICTORY ON POST OFFICES
Minister praises Mail’s campaign as she pledges fairer pay for local postmasters
PAY rates for struggling postmasters are to be reviewed to try to stop a wave of branch closures.
In a victory for a Daily Mail campaign to save the vital network, business minister Kelly Tolhurst insisted staff should receive a fair wage. Today she is hosting a summit of executives and sub-postmasters at the start of a major seven-week salary review.
The news will lift towns and villages that fear losing their sole branch. Many postmasters have warned that years of
pay cuts have wiped out their profits, leaving them no choice but to close.
More than 1,000 post offices are currently shuttered and in April 2,500 subpostmasters warned they could close or downsize over the next 12 months.
Around £110million has been wiped off postmaster pay since 2012, even as top executives continued to claim huge bonuses, accounts show.
Miss Tolhurst said: ‘i share the pride and passion that Daily Mail readers have in the Post office and i am determined to ensure its long-term success.
‘Today i have brought together the Post office leadership team and representatives of local postmasters to launch a new review into pay. i want this substantial review to engage meaningfully with postmasters across the country and be concluded as quickly as possible to ensure postmasters receive a fair wage.’
This newspaper is demanding that subpostmasters, the private businessmen and women who run local post offices, are paid fair fees to reflect the vital services they provide and their long hours. The Post office has pledged to bring forward an increase in the fees paid to postmasters for offering customers banking from January 2020 to october this year. The fee for handling an £8,000 deposit will rise from £3.12 to £8.16.
Sub-postmasters insist their fees for other services are still far too low.
They are paid just £1 for checking an identity document, even though customers are charged £10.50. Post offices also lose out when customers go online to buy stamps and parcels, pay bills and use government services.
Andy furey of the communications Workers’ Union, which represents 300 postmasters, welcomed the pay review.
He added: ‘This would not have happened without the Daily Mail’s campaign because the exposure of what’s happening to postmasters has forced the Post office and government to instigate this review. The review is long overdue and desperately needs to redress the balance between the losses that have been incrementally incurred over a number of years.’
MPs campaigning to protect post offices said the pay review must lead to meaningful changes for postmasters.
former liberal Democrat leader Tim farron said: ‘With more and more banks abandoning our high streets, the importance of our local rural post offices – especially for older people – has never been greater. The fact the minister has waded in and launched a badly-needed review into postmaster pay will hopefully end up being a big win for rural communities.’
Al cameron, interim chief executive of the Post office, said: ‘We are committed to ensuring our postmasters receive a fair remuneration for the vital services they provide to customers.
‘We announced significant increases for providing cash deposit services, which are in addition to other recent increases in banking services remuneration. We are also conducting a special review into wider postmaster remuneration. This is so we can support our retailers to ensure their businesses are as efficient and profitable as possible.’
PEOPLE don’t run post offices to get rich. Indeed, for many, being an indispensable part of local life is an agreeable reward – even if it doesn’t put bread on the table.
But it is contemptible that hundreds of sub-postmasters earn a pittance in takehome pay – as little as £1 an hour.
So we applaud business minister Kelly Tolhurst for launching a review of fees for services – a victory for our campaign to save Britain’s post offices.
If this leads to pay rises, fewer stricken branches will be forced to close – and they’ll remain their communities’ beating hearts.