Post Office delivers £30m remuneration improvement for postmasters

Included in the package of remuneration improvements are:

• A one-off remuneration boost, equal to 15% of postmaster’s March 2024 trading, in variable remuneration. This will be paid in April 2024. Across the network, this equates to a nearly £5 million investment by Post Office.

• An increase in Mails remuneration worth around £12 million as a result of Royal Mail tariff increases and remuneration increases for Royal Mail volume-based products such as pre-paid parcels and returns which will go up by 4.0% in line with CPI.
• A 21% increase in remuneration for postmasters handling DVLA transactions.
• An average increase of 9.4% on outreach payments to postmasters who operate mobile vans as outreach Post Offices to take into account the national living wage increase and changes in fuel prices.

In addition, Post Office has announced a complementary £3.5million investment to roll-out high-grade note counters for 2,800 of its largest banking branches. This will help automate the accurate processing of cash deposits.

Nick Read, chief executive of the Post Office, said: “Postmasters are not immune to the current challenging economic environment, and we are acutely aware of the impact minimum wage increases have on their costs. Following a strong performance for our online business, and thanks to postmasters’ help in building the brand and delivering fantastic customer service, we have again been able to share this success with postmasters in the form of a one-off payment.”

Back-office activities, such as cash processing and accounting, take a significant amount of time for postmasters. In recognition of the growing workload for cash processing, in August 2022, Post Office doubled the per transaction remuneration rate for banking deposits, and last April increased all banking deposit remuneration by a further 20%.

To build on this, Post Office is launching an Operational Excellence Incentive to remunerate Postmasters for the time already spent on back-office activities. By carrying out the existing operational requirements for running a branch, postmasters will have the opportunity to boost total variable remuneration by up to 5% each month.

These payments will be based on meeting the requirements for daily cash declarations, cash pouch remittances, cash holdings and monthly trading period accounting.

Post Office has developed the scheme in collaboration with the postmaster NEDs, postmaster regional forums, postmaster experience director Mark Eldridge, and the NFSP to ensure the scheme works for Postmasters.

The first remuneration payment for the incentive will be made on 30 September 2024. This will be based on activity in the August trading period.

Post Office will be sharing with postmasters more information, training and support guides on the incentive over the coming months.