Royal Mail bosses ‘must answer for the chaos’ in postal service

Royal Mail bosses have serious questions to answer from MPs at the Business and Trade Select Committee hearing, says the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Postal workers’ union the CWU said bosses must prioritise working conditions to deliver a quality service. And TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said Royal Mail bosses “must get their house in order” and “must answer for the chaos” in the postal service. He was speaking ahead of a Business and Trade Select Committee hearing on 24 March.

Bosses at the 500-year-old institution appeared in front of MPs to explain the crisis in the service. Problems include failures to meet delivery targets and widespread service delays.

Crisis at Royal Mail

The hearing comes after a report by the committee earlier in March highlighted the “service failures” at Royal Mail. 219 million letters arrived late in a year and the company failed to meet quality targets.

The report found just 74.9% of first-class post arrived on time between April 2025 and January 2026, well below the target of 93%.

The CWU says the company is facing a “recruitment crisis” due to its decision to impose “gig economy standards” on recruits who joined the service since 2022.

The CWU says that since 2022, 27,000 new entrants have left the Royal Mail, with 50% leaving within the first year.

The union is currently in intense negotiations with the company over the Royal Mail’s decision to introduce the Optimised Delivery Model. This moves second-class mail to alternate-weekday delivery while keeping first-class deliveries six days a week and reducing delivery route numbers in a bid to save money.

But after dozens of offices piloted the model, the CWU says members are describing it as a “car-crash” strategy. Instead of being guided by workers’ ability to deliver a quality service in their working hours, the union says work cannot be completed in time. Instead, the postal worker comes back the next day with all the work from the previous day still to complete.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

The Royal Mail is one of our most treasured national institutions. But with staff overworked and underpaid, is it any wonder the company is in crisis?

Royal Mail bosses must answer for the chaos in the postal service. They need to get their house in order. That starts with listening to the workers who know better than anyone how to get the service back on its feet.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward also referenced EP Group, the sprawling business empire that owns Royal Mail. He said:

Royal Mail and EP Group have made excuse after excuse over why Royal Mail’s service has been consistently poor over the past few years.

Now it is time for the truth. The job of a postal worker has been devalued and shareholder profit has been prioritised over service to the public – this is what is creating the crisis.

The CWU welcomes the opportunity to speak for postal workers before the Select Committee. But parliament must begin thinking seriously about the situation Royal Mail is in, and take real action to prevent this great institution from sliding even further into managed decline.

Featured image via the Canary