Royal Mail could make up to 6,000 staff redundant by next summer as part of a drive to counter ongoing strike action and mounting losses.

The company said it has started the process of consulting over ‘rightsizing the business in response to the impact of industrial action, delays in delivering agreed productivity improvements and lower parcel volumes’.

Short-term cost efficiencies are being sought through the planned reduction of 5,000 fulltime equivalent roles by March and around 10,000 by August, it added.

It said this expected to require up to 6,000 redundancies by August.

It came amid a warning by parent group International Distributions Services that Royal Mail is expected to tumble to a £350 million operating loss for the year after being hit by industrial action.

Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson said: ‘This is a very sad day. I regret that we are announcing these job losses.

‘We will do all we can to avoid compulsory redundancies and support everyone affected.

‘We have announced today losses of £219 million in the first half of the year. Each strike day weakens our financial situation.

‘The CWU’s decision to choose damaging strike action over resolution regrettably increases the risk of further headcount reductions.’

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