Post Office plans to close 115 branches across England

The Post Office has announced that 115 branches are at risk of closure as part of a radical change in business.

The closures will affect wholly owned branches of the Post Office, which employ around 1,000 workers and are loss-making.

The Post Office also confirmed that hundreds of jobs at its head office were also under threat.

Approximately 9,000 of the Post Office’s 11,500 branches are managed by independent postmasters. The other 2,000 are operated by retailers such as WHSmith, Tesco, Morrisons and Co-Op.

Branches threatened with closure include 115 Royal Post Offices. These are usually located in city centers and are staffed by Post Office employees.

It is looking at other options other than closing branches, including alternative franchise arrangements where retailers such as WHSmith or another third party could undertake them.

The strategic review is designed to fundamentally change the way the organization operates and put the business on a more solid financial footing. BBC reports.

Post Office chief executive Nigel Railton, who is leading the review, said the change would increase postmasters’ pay by £250 million over five years.

Railton said: “The Post Office has a 360-year history of public service and today we want to future-proof that service by learning from the mistakes of the past and moving forward for the benefit of all postmasters. “We renew our pride in working for a business with a heritage of service, rather than one riddled with scandals We can and will revive it.

“The value that postmasters add to their communities must be reflected in their pockets, and this Transformation Plan provides a pathway to add more than £250 million a year to total postmaster pay by 2030, subject to government funding.”

But news of potential closures and job losses has been criticized by the Communications Workers Union (CWU), which said the plans were “immoral” and “tone deaf”. Horizon IT scandal.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “For the company to announce the closure of hundreds of Post Offices so soon after the Horizon scandal is as deaf as it is immoral. CWU members have been victimized horizon scandal – and the fact that they now fear for their jobs ahead of Christmas is another cruel attack.”

The increase in online shopping and the decline in the number of people sending letters have left the Post Office in a difficult position in recent years.

The organization also remains the subject of a long-running investigation into the Horizon scandal, in which hundreds of deputy postmasters were wrongly convicted of stealing from the company between 1999 and 2015.

In fact, it was faulty computer software that made it look like there was no money in their account.

The public inquiry into the scandal is in its final week of evidence, more than two and a half years after the public hearing began.

Relating to: Daily Mail says Harry and Meghan are to blame for Justin Welby scandal