Royal Mail has denied media speculation that up to 48,000 staff in its letters division could be made redundant.
A spokesman said: “The figures quoted are wrong, but in an increasingly competitive market we are of course testing new, more efficient ways of working including greater automation. Until we have done this we cannot confirm the impact on jobs.”
The Communications Workers Union said it was entering into talks with Royal Mail.
l TNT Post in The Netherlands is cutting around 7,000 jobs and is freezing employee wages until the middle of 2009. It warned that involuntary redundancies were likely. It said it was working to safeguard its success in the longer term in a market that is experiencing declining volumes.
