Parcelforce fund is safe
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by Gail Ashton • Parcelforce driver unions say they are not convinced by management claims of good job security but are reassured by legal advice on the company's pension fund (CM 4-11 Feb/31 Dec-6 Jan).
The Union of Communication Workers has received legal advice that the company's pension fund cannot be used for commercial gain when the Post Office's parcels division is privatised. Fears that a buyer would strip the pension fund have been allayed by lawyers. They say the money can be used only to enhance the benefits of the pension fund itself.
In a further development, the company says its 7,000 drivers' jobs are more secure with the news that Parcelforce has won more than Lllm worth of new contracts in the past six months. A contract worth about £100,000 a year to distribute building appliances for Glasgow-based McAlpine & Co was won last month.
News of the additional work comes as the PO's parcel division closes 50 depots across the country But Parcelforce national sales manager Alan Forster says the cuts did not involve job losses, and were the result of the integration of the company's express and standard networks.
"We are certainly not laying drivers off and this new work enables us to give more job security" says Forster.
A spokesman for the Union of Communication Workers says privatisation is throwing a shadow over employees' futures. "There is a climate of extreme uncertainty in the business. No one knows what will happen to jobs when Parcelforce is privatised and these contracts will do nothing to reassure workers."