EVER since Allan Leighton took the reins at Royal Mail four years ago the organisation has undergone huge change. It is now on the brink of much more.

The task of the chairman, a retailer, serial executive and a favourite business person of the Prime Minister, was to pull into the modern world a sleepy organisation for which few had much regard. The postal group was then weirdly rebranded as Consignia, a word which meant nothing; it seemed to be genuinely taken by surprise by spiralling financial losses; it was hit by a major computer network shortfall; and for light relief it had almost daily industrial relations crises.

The Consignia name was consigned to the bin almost immediately; profits are now healthy after a three-year recovery period; service has improved; postal workers’ pay has risen far ahead of inflation; and industrial relations have greatly improved, although, all that could change over the next few weeks.

The change has not been without pain. Several thousand post offices closed under a rationalisation plan that saw the Government modernise the way benefits were paid. Some 30,000 jobs have been cut and the traditional two daily postal deliveries have been reduced to one. On top of this, Royal Mail has lost it postal monopoly.

Now the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has to work out its response to the biggest shake-up yet for Royal Mail’s structure. The postal group has a business plan that is likely to be endorsed by the Government next week.

That involves an investment of up to £2 billion which will come through various measures that the CWU will back — although investment, for the union, is a double-edged sword that will improve the business but with the loss of jobs through mechanisation.

The second element of the business plan, employees receiving shares, angers the union as well as Labour backbench MPs.

This is Mr Leighton’s “big idea” and something he has championed for some time. But while it may sound egalitarian, it raises strong fears of privatisation.

Why talk about shares in a business if those shares will not at some point be able to be traded on an open market?

Employer and union are at loggerheads over this, not least because Mr Leighton has written to the staff seeking their views but has banned the union from conducting a consultative ballot on the future of Royal Mail in the workplace. They are also clashing over pay, with Royal Mail having taken the provocative step of imposing a pay rise that the union rejected.

Who will win? Mr Leighton will be buoyed by the fact that the CWU lost a crucial ballot for industrial action three years ago and he has invested much time in visiting mail centres to talk to staff personally.

But the union also sees share ownership as crossing the Rubicon and will be vigorous in its opposition.

Politically, Mr Leighton may have a difficult time over the share-ownership issue.

There is support from the Liberal Democrats but the Tories may want to try to derail the Government and vote against the move. A Commons motion opposing any change of ownership has been signed by 199 Labour MPs, and a sizeable and potentially winning Commons rebellion is highly likely.

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