Britain is facing the threat of postal strikes during the busy autumn business period followingthe failure of in-depth pay talks between Royal Mail and the CWU postal workers union. The next
industrial action could be during September.Negotiations aimed at ending the long-running pay and conditions dispute broke down on Sundayafter being extended for five days to try to achieve a deal. The four-week “period of calm”, whichfollowed strikes in July and August, now appears to be over.
“(We are) extremely disappointed that, despite a four week “period of calm” to allow talks totake place, the Communication Workers Union continues to ignore the stark challenges facing thecompany and refuses to agree a way forward for the business,” Royal Mail declared today. Thecompany said it had offered a short-term and long-term solution during the talks.
The British national postal operator said it had a “unique opportunity”, as a result of the GBP1.2 billion (EUR 1.76 billion) of funding made available by the Government earlier this year, tofight back against rivals such as Dutch group TNT and Business Post’s UK Mail, which have won partof its business.
“It is time now to grasp this opportunity on behalf of our customers and our people. Royal Mailis already losing business because our costs and therefore our prices are too high and our businesscustomers are choosing to go elsewhere. We will be announcing our next steps in due course,” thecompany said.
In response, the CWU said the talks had led to progress on pay and other areas, and it wasdisappointed that Royal Mail had ended the agreed ‘period of calm’.
“The union therefore can only presume that Royal Mail is set to implement unagreedoperational changes. As a result, despite being committed to further talks and being determined toreach an agreement, CWU will announce further strikes to be held prior to the endof September,” the union stated.
The CWU said that Royal Mail had offered a deal, including 6.7% on basic pay over two yearswith additional lump sums and including more money in the first year. But workers would haveto agree to “total flexibility where (they) will not know what job they are performing from day today”. The company had also wanted lower pension benefits, increased employee contributions andlater retirement age. There was no final agreement on a number of areas including job security,personnel procedures, automation, productivity and network changes.
Royal Mail originally offered a 2.5% pay rise and a GBP 800 (EUR 1,180) one-off payment inreturn for the acceptance of its proposed GBP 350 million (EUR 517 million) cost-cutting programme.The union claims 40,000 jobs are at risk from the modernisation plans.
