A Royal Mail group HR director has been made redundant, just as parliament is set to debate the possible part-privitisation of the postal company, Personnel Today has learned.
Stephen Windsor-Lewis, former director of group people programmes at the Royal Mail Group, took voluntary redundancy at the end of January and is now on gardening leave.
He told Personnel Today his redundancy was “all quite amicable” and part of a strategy to move the HR function within the group’s business units.
Windwor-Lewis said: “[My redundancy] was just part of a move to place strategic responsibilities within the business units. I work in the ‘group’ function [so I was affected by that]”.
He added: “I’m in a nice position of being able to take some time to think about my options. I have plenty of ambitions but I’m just deciding which to pursue.”
The Royal Mail Group declined to comment.
On Thurdsay (26 February) ministers will debate the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail group in a bill before parliament.
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Some ministers have argued that the company cannot survive as it is, claiming Westminster should sell off a 30% stake in the organisation to pay for modernisation, although more than 100 Labour MPs oppose the move.
Ministers warned that the Royal Mail’s pension fund would not be able to fulfil it’s obligations without the sell-off.
