The UK’s Communication Workers’ Union is to ballot 130,000 members working at Royal Mail over anational postal strike after talks broke down with management over a pay and conditions deal.
Royal Mail offered the employees a 2.5%, below-inflation, pay rise and one-off payment of upto GBP 550 (EUR 805.2) for each if they were to accept radical work restructuring and facilitate aGBP 350 million (EUR 512.7 million) cost-cutting programme.
But the CWU’s postal executive has rejected the offer and is to ballot members over thestrike next week.
The union believes that the UK’s troubled state-owned postal operator is planning up to40,000 job losses and privatisation.
Results of the vote are due to be announced on 7 June. It will be the first national UKpostal strike in a decade.
Royal Mail has been determined to keep this year’s pay rise down following criticism bypostal regulator Postcomm over its high labour costs.
The group says that 20% of the bulk letter business will be handled by lower-payingcompetitors by the end of this year, following liberalisation of the UK mail market at thebeginning of 2006.
Unions claim, however, that Royal Mail’s business plan amounts to a cost-cutting “frenzy” andthat the scrapping of night shifts and reduced weekend work will lead to a poorer service to thepublic.
The group has a near-GBP 7 billion pension deficit and profits fell 80% to just GBP 22million in the first half of the current fiscal year.
