'Hacked off' Leighton embroiled in new row over postal pay

Allan Leighton, the chairman of Consignia, has written direct to the Royal Mail's 170,000 employees complaining that he is "hacked off" at the failure of postal managers and union officials to implement a pay and productivity deal that 70 per cent of its staff voted in favour of.

The former Asda boss who took over at Consignia earlier this year, said the "negotiators" seemed to be having difficulty finding time to talk to one another about the deal which links a two-year pay agreement to the introduction of a single daily delivery. "They must all be in the Costa del Sol or watching every game in the World Cup, so in theory the pay deal cannot go through. Frankly, I'm hacked off with the whole lot of them and I wouldn't be surprised if you were too," he writes.

Mr Leighton's letter drew an angry response last night from union leaders who accused him of playing to the gallery. John Keggie, deputy general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, wrote back saying: "You may believe that by slagging off your managers and trade union representatives you will become popular with some individuals. However, I believe your attempts to gain immediate popularity will be seen for what they are – shallow and insincere."

He said the Consignia board and some politicians might want to slap Mr Leighton on the back for being "big, bold and brash" but warned: "I can tell you this approach will not wash."

A Consignia spokesman said: "In assuming that this letter is just directed at his officials, Mr Keggie seems to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick."

He said the criticism applied equally to Consignia's own negotiators. Until the pay deal is ratified and introduced, Consignia cannot proceed with trails of a single delivery. It wants to complete the introduction of one delivery a day by autumn next year – a move which will save the Royal Mail £350m a year but result in 17,000 redundancies.

Mr Leighton ends his letter by saying that in future Consignia, which is changing its name to Royal Mail, would "focus on the majority that counts for something, not the treacle that just plays the game and gets in the way." He has set up a website – Ask.Allan@consignia.com – so staff can e-mail back their views.