So, about that payrise?

I was surprised to say the least when the posties in Royal Mail managed to get a payrise of 6.9% over 3 years, at the time I thought it mere electioneering on the part of the unions to avoid embarrassing strikes before the general election, the sort that get Labour thrown out of office (I discount the rail strike as the RMT oddly have no ties to Labour, being basically run by communists)
So this little gem raised an eyebrow here as well as my blood pressure.

Telegraph.

Royal Mail's claims that nine out of 10 letters and parcels are delivered the next day have been thrown into doubt after an investigation caught staff "systematically" trying to fix performance figures. 

Postcomm, the postal regulator, found that countless workers - from postmen to area managers - were involved in a widespread operation to intercept mail sent out by an independent monitoring company.

Staff worked out how to identify "test" letters posted to monitor deliveries, and gave them priority treatment to ensure they arrived on time. 

The scandal is thought to have been going on for at least eight years. Senior bosses, including Adam Crozier, the chief executive, have been paid tens of thousands of pounds in bonuses based on the company's "service quality" figures, which include data on delivery times.

Although there was no evidence that senior executives were aware of what was going on, a report by Postcomm said some managers "may have received bonus payments to which they were not entitled" since they were "based on recorded levels of quality of service which were incorrectly monitored and recorded".

The report also condemns Royal Mail's board for "significant corporate failings" in being ignorant of the problem, which came to light only after a whistle-blower contacted Postcomm. Several postal workers have been suspended and face disciplinary action.

So, not only were they lying about the delivery times, they used said figures to demand bonuses and no doubt used said figures in their claims for the payrise too.
This looks like complicity throughout the industry to deceive the public and also to defraud us too as public money continues to be pumped into Royal Mail to make up for its lack of profits.
Now I don't have that much of an issue supporting some sort of national postal service even if it can't be run at a profit (though I suspect it could) but it does seem that the whole business is run by the Royal Mail for the benefit of the Royal Mail from top management to low paid postal workers, complete with strongarm union tactics to demand that we keep paying out on fraudulent claims of delivery times.
Until that culture is challenged and changed I don't think they are worth the money they are getting.