Post Office cuts 100 jobs to fund subpostmaster pay after Horizon scandal
Acting chief executive Neil Brocklehurst said the move was ‘resetting’ the Post Office in a note to staff on Wednesday.
The Post Office is to cut about 100 jobs as part of plans to boost payouts to thousands of its subpostmasters.
Senior managers were told that they would be affected on Wednesday, after acting chief executive Neil Brocklehurst sent a note sent to all staff, seen by the PA news agency.
He wrote: “The intention behind these proposed changes remains to create a more efficient team that can effectively deliver a sustainable future for the network, for postmasters and their communities.
“The intention is to rebase our costs to help fund the upcoming transformative change which aims to leave the Post Office on a more sustainable financial footing.
“It is critical that we continue to make progress in resetting Post Office for the future.”
The cuts mark the latest part of an overhaul set out by chairman Nigel Railton in November, when he said he would boost subpostmaster pay by £250 million over five years.
Then, the Post Office revealed it is looking to offload 115 directly-owned branches within its 11,500 network.
The move could see them transferred to retail partners or postmasters, or potentially closed.
A public inquiry remains ongoing into the Horizon IT scandal, which involved hundreds of subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of stealing.
The scandal has been labelled Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice, after the company’s defective accounting system made it appear as though money was missing from their branches.
