Post Office boss in ‘£1m wage wrangle’
THE Post Office’s chief executive wanted a pay package of more than £1million a year or he would resign, it is claimed.
Nick Read – who was paid £573,000 last year – warned colleagues that “my patience has expired”, a Sunday paper reported.
He allegedly also said “we will end up in a real self-made mess” when he pushed for a bumper new deal last year.
When asked by a Commons committee last week if he had ever tried to resign, Read responded: “No. Why do you say that?”
But according to minutes of a meeting last January, he said he was “prepared to make a drama” if he did not get a pay rise, the
Sunday Times claimed. The former Army officer, 57, said he was ready to “submit a formal grievance, and/or make a claim for constructive dismissal”.
Read is said to have demanded increases to his salary and short-term bonus as part of a package in excess of £1million. Some of his colleagues felt his “self-centred fixation” was a distraction when the PO was dealing with the Horizon scandal.
A whistleblowing report accuses Read of bullying and threatening to resign in a bid for a pay rise.
The whistleblowing case is being investigated by a three-person panel.
The PO said it does not comment on active cases or probes. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters and others were wrongly prosecuted based on flaws in accounting software.
Asked if Read’s position was tenable, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told Times Radio: “In the middle of an investigation, for me to say that his position is tenable or not tenable wouldn’t be appropriate.”