NFSP statement on Post Office Ltd’s remuneration update

Post Office Ltd (PO) have today released information relating to remuneration and the Operational Excellence Initiative. This has been sent out by email to all postmasters.

During the 2019 Remuneration Review, the NFSP recognised that postmasters were not remunerated for all of the work they do on behalf of PO.

Therefore, we encouraged PO to look at how postmasters can be remunerated for this work that primarily would be classed as back office.

In the summer of 2023, PO agreed to carry out a time and motion study on exactly what work a postmaster and their assistants carry out on their behalf as part of their daily tasks.

At the same time, the NFSP recognised that there were certain tasks that could reduce PO central costs and looked to work with PO on producing a model that enabled postmasters to share in any savings.

This is what Back Office Payments, or as PO calls it Operational Excellence, is about and PO say the improvements are collectively worth £30m for postmasters. This is the start rather than the end of this exercise as the NFSP seeks to work with postmasters and PO to improve remuneration.

As we communicated before, the NFSP’s desire is for PO to come to us to have open and meaningful discussions in regards to remuneration in advance of any changes.

This is to enable the NFSP time to properly and fully engage with the network to seek their views and feed back into the ongoing discussions with PO, so we can come to an amicable and pragmatic agreement that is beneficial for the network.

As part of that desire, on 18 January this year, the NFSP held a national meeting and invited all members to attend so that we could discuss in an open and transparent manner Operational Excellence.

At that meeting colleagues guided the NFSP as to their views on how Operational Excellence could be improved and also provided their thoughts on the level of remuneration associated with that.

This was then fed back to PO in January. Despite requests from the NFSP to discuss the views of colleagues with regards to remuneration on Operational Excellence, PO have only just come back to the NFSP to indicate what is available in relation to any changes that could be provided.

However, as is clear, PO have engaged with the Postmaster NEDs, regional forums, and the Postmaster Experience Director. As indicated in Calum Greenhow’s newsletter column last week, we highlighted how PO is engaging with these different groups and then coming back to the NFSP with the view that the proposals offered are acceptable to these other groups, despite the NFSP bringing the views of postmasters with whom they have engaged with on national calls.

Therefore, there is still work to be done to make the necessary improvements that are acceptable to postmasters.

Unfortunately, the lateness of PO’s response and their desire to communicate with the network, this has prohibited the NFSP from engaging further with colleagues to seek whether they are agreeable to the amendments.

Whilst the financial benefit will not be fully realised until September, the NFSP expressed the views that colleagues require help and support now to be able to fund the rise in their costs associated with providing PO services.

Leaving the introduction of Operational Excellence until September gives us the opportunity to support and help colleagues to understand how this work can benefit them individually. When Operational Excellence is launched, we will be able to hit the ground running and immediately benefit from the financial increase.

PO will be providing colleagues with an information pack in due course which we would urge you all to read and via the poll HERE, can you indicate whether you agree with the proposal or not.