MORE than 1000 sub-postmasters in Scotland are waiting for urgent clarification over the future of their livelihoods after it was announced that Royal Mail is to be privatised.
Concerns have been raised that the move will lead to a loss of income and deterioration in the exclusive contract the delivery service has with Post Office Limited, which runs post offices or pays sub-postmasters to do so.
Sub-postmasters earn around one-third of their income from Royal Mail, with most receiving about £10,000 a year in income for selling stamps and processing packages ready for delivery.
Rural post offices are feared to be particularly at risk from the privatisation move towards given concern that Royal Mail's new owners will cherry pick the most profitable delivery routes.
Business secretary Vince Cable said the sell-off will not threaten universal service obligation, which has for more than 300 years assured delivery to all homes for the price of a stamp, but no guarantees have been set in stone.
This leaves open the possibility that those living in less populated areas could end up paying more for their postal service.
The sale, which will raise around £3 billion, was announced by Mr Cable in the House of Commons, where he stated it was a logical step which offered real commercial freedom for Royal Mail, which has doubled its profits as it focuses on meeting the demands of internet shopping.
The Royal Mail will be listed on the London Stock Exchange by the end of the financial year.
As a result, around 150,000 postal workers are set to share millions of pounds' worth of shares when the company is privatised later this year, with employees to own 10% of the new company with the public able to invest in the firm.
However, the National Federation of Sub-postmasters has described the move as a "reckless gamble with the future of the UK's post office network".
Federation branch secretary Calum Greenhow, a sub-postmaster in Biggar, South Lanarkshire, said: "Our big concern is that the business agreement will be ripped up and the Royal Mail will take their business somewhere else. If that happens, you can wave goodbye to Post Office Ltd."
"What we are looking for is reassurance the business agreement is not touched and the privatised company coming in will not rip that up in pursuit of profit."
Unions, who have threatened industrial action, claimed workers were "too long in the tooth" to accept the shares sweetener. Industrial action has been threatened.
Billy Hayes, CWU General Secretary said: "Royal Mail is profitable, has modernised and can be successful in public ownership.
Royal Mail's own poll found 77% of Scots were opposed to the privatisation of Royal Mail – more than any other part of the UK
Rob Gibson, SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, said Scotland needed its own postal delivery service, based on a social model, to meet the demands of a largely scattered population.
He said: "We can't afford to lose universal service. We need a Scottish solution. Many of our communities are scattered over large areas of land.
"It takes two and a half hours to travel from one end of my constituency to another. These communities require more guarantees.
"We need a national postal service and if France can do it, we certainly can. The needs of these far flung constituents demand a service that is fit for them, not one that suits those who cherry pick the profits in the big cities.
Labour's Chuka Umunna, shadow business minister, told MPs the Coalition had failed to provide any justification for acting now.
He said: "There is every sign this treasured national institution is being sold off on the cheap to get income quickly to a Treasury whose economic strategy has failed."
The flotation is likely to be one of the biggest since British Gas was privatised in the 1980s."
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