Royal Mail plans to cut around 700 management jobs at the business as part of cost-cutting measures, the company has announced.
Making the 700 managers redundant would save around £40million every year, according to the Royal Mail - that's around £57,142 per manager.
Around £30million of that would come between April 2022 and April 2023.
However, there would be a one-off cost of £70million to make all the redundancies - which Royal Mail would pay before April this year.
The firm is now consulting on the move, which will involve unions Unite, CMA and CWU.
The news comes as Royal Mail warns of disruption at ten of its delivery offices in the UK as it continues to be hit by staff absences.
A Royal Mail statement said: "Our successful 'Day in the Life of' initiative has already reduced administration for frontline managers and allowed us to repurpose over one million annualised hours so that managers can spend more time focusing on their teams and customers.
"As a next step, subject to consultation, we intend to further simplify and streamline our operational structures to ensure an improved focus on local performance, and devolve more accountability and flexibility to frontline operational managers."
Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson said: “With the rise of Omicron, absence has been around twice pre-Covid levels, with around 15,000 staff off sick or isolating in early January. Thankfully, this is now improving.
“We are resolutely focused on addressing these issues which have affected our service in some parts of the country.
“Year to date we have spent more than £340 million on overtime, additional temporary staffing and sick pay, as well as providing targeted support for the offices most impacted.”
On the planned job cuts, he said: “We have today entered into formal consultation on a management reorganisation to further streamline our operations and, at the same time, improve focus on local performance.
“We are committed to conducting the process sensitively, working closely with our people and their representatives.
“We have a track record of delivering change through natural turnover, redeployment and voluntary redundancy wherever possible.”
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