The long-running Brazilian postal strike is set to finish tomorrow after a labour court orderedstriking staff back to work following last week’s rejection of a compromise pay deal.
The Brazilian Supreme Labour Tribunal (TST), headed by several government ministers, yesterdayruled that the strike, which started on September 14, should be terminated at midnight on October12. The remaining staff on strike would thus return to work on October 13.
The court also confirmed that a compromise pay deal it already proposed last week but which wasrejected by unions should be imposed. This included a pay rise of 6.87% back-dated to August, anadditional R$80 per month salary rise from October and various increases to food allowances.
On the controversial issue of whether workers would have their pay docked for days on strike,the tribunal ruled that pay for 7 days would be taken from salary payments between January andDecember 2012. The other 21 days should be compensated by working the equivalent number of days onSaturdays and Sundays until May 2012.
Correios said that the pay increase would be introduced at the end of this week and that itexpected to normalise services within seven days. The company has been calling in non-strikingstaff to work over-time at weekends to minimise the volume backlog and service disruption.
The TST ruling marks an end to a bitter labour dispute. Unions called a strike last month topress their claims for higher pay after unsuccessful negotiations with Correios. But the number ofstriking workers fell away during the stoppage to about 20% of the 110,000 employees last week. The80% of staff working normally were providing the usual delivery services and ensuring that abouttwo thirds of the daily volumes were delivered normally, according to Correios.
