Royal Mail agrees upon pay deal with postal workers union Royal Mail

The union representing the workers is demanding a pay rise that more closely reflects the current rate of inflation. Letters will not be delivered on strike days and some parcels will be delayed, Royal Mail warned. This would effectively see employees in secure, well-paid jobs turned into a “casualised, financially-precarious workforce overnight”, said the union.

A further 2% of salary would be available in a productivity bonus, the firm said. The union has announced 19 days of strike action in the buildup to the busy Christmas period. The industrial action will cover peak periods such as Black Friday on 25 November and Cyber Monday on 28 November. The CWU said the plans included delaying the arrival of post to the public by three hours, cuts ig broker in workers’ sick pay and inferior terms for new employees. No letters will be delivered during strike days, said Royal Mail, but as many special delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible would be delivered. General Secretary Mr Ward said the changes could lead to the “destruction of the special relationship that postal workers and the public have in every community in the UK”.

General Secretary Dave Ward said that postal workers face their “biggest ever assault on their jobs, terms and conditions in the history of Royal Mail”. The CWU said plans include delaying the arrival of post to members of the public by three hours, cuts in workers’ sick pay and inferior terms for new employees. Britain has been hit by a wave of strikes in the past year, with rail employees, barristers and refuse workers having already walked out over pay and conditions amid a cost-of-living crisis. To avoid delayed or lost documents or items in the coming months, it will be best to avoid sending post using Royal Mail around the dates of the walk out. But if important letters and parcels cannot wait, there are alternatives, but they will be more expensive.Many courier companies now offer a “postable” service for letters and small parcels which can fit through a letterbox.

It said plans by the postal service include cutting workers’ sick pay, delaying arrival of post by three hours and inferior terms for new employees. Another example of a workforce being led, lemming-like, over the edge of an employment cliffs by their trade union’s dinasaur leader in ANOTHER POLITICALLY MOTIVATED STRIKE designed to bash the Tories. The CWU has accused Royal Mail of planning structural change, which it has said will see cuts to workers’ sick pay, delayed arrival of post by three hours and inferior terms for new employees. Royal Mail has reported a £1bn loss, with bosses blaming strike action by workers and a failure to increase productivity for its poor performance during a year in which it cut 10,000 jobs.

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The majority of Post Offices are expected to be open on the dates walkouts are talking place, although a small number will be affected by the CWU action. “These are the same people that have kept the country connected and returned Royal Mail Group to record profit,” he said. It said its “significant announcement” reflects the “level of alvexo review anger” workers feel. Shares were sold to financial institutions and private individuals, with 10% reserved for Royal Mail employees. On 24 November, Royal Mail said it had made its “best and final offer”, and accused the union of “holding Christmas to ransom”. The last suggested Christmas posting dates were brought forward as a result.

“There is not a single aspect of these cuts which is about improving customer service. They are being driven entirely by a culture of greed and profiteering which has seized a 500-year-old essential service, driving it close to ruin. Postal workers will walk out on Friday and Saturday, disrupting the delivery of Christmas gifts and cards in a blow to both Royal Mail and retailers that depend on festive sales. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a Royal Mail postal worker is around £25,000. In 2020, the Daily Express reported that postal worker salaries at Royal Mail can range from £13,007 – £34,582, and that the hourly rate is thought to be between £10 and £11.

Early signs are that on day 6 of strike action, the support is bigger than ever. Royal Mail says that it will investigate what has been going on at the Winsford delivery office as “a priority”. Royal Mail said the company is battling for survival and accused a union of “peddling lies” in a strongly-worded letter to staff ahead of another round of strikes. Dave Ward, CWU general secretary said there will now be a “small window” for talks to avoid walkouts before strike dates are set.

Royal Mail employees have gone on strike in Britain as the country braces for more industrial action ahead of what is being called a new “winter of discontent”. The agreement includes a 10% salary increase and a one-off lump sum of £500 for all CWU-grade employees in Royal Mail and Parcelforce, regardless of union membership. That deal has been ratified by the union’s executive committee, and will be put to a ballot of its membership with a recommendation to approve it. Our people need the CWU leadership to recognise the reality of the situation Royal Mail faces as a business, and to engage urgently on the changes required to adapt to customer demands in a highly competitive market.

One former Royal Mail area manager, who left recently and asked to speak anonymously, says he was so short-staffed that for weeks at a time he instructed postal staff to leave letters behind. Under what is called the Universal Service Obligation, Royal Mail is required by law to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week to every address in the UK. Owner drivers agree individual parcel rates with Parcelforce in their contracts.

Widespread action

“Royal Mail is losing £1m a day and must change faster in response to changing customer demands. The postal regulator, Ofcom, investigated the issue of parcel prioritisation last year. It said it had not found evidence of a “general organisation-wide policy directed by Royal Mail’s senior management” of prioritising parcels over letters in “business-as-usual periods”. Royal Mail says it is its job to ensure every letter and parcel is delivered on time because that is what customers have been promised.

1. It said it had not found evidence of a “general organisation-wide policy directed by Royal Mail’s senior management” of prioritising parcels over letters in “business-as-usual periods”.
2. No letters will be delivered during strike days, said Royal Mail, but as many special delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible would be delivered.
3. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the strikes will cover Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
4. Any strike dates are yet to be decided but the CWU said if a walk out goes ahead, it could amount to the biggest ever action taken by its members.
5. Postal workers have launched a 24-hour strike in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions, with industrial action planned for the coming weeks.

If a first or second class letter or parcel has not been delivered within 10 days of its due date, you might be entitled to compensation. For tracked deliveries, a claim can be made seven days after the due date.Either the sender or the recipient can make a claim, but only one party will receive compensation. Royal Mail mounted picket lines outside delivery and sorting offices again on Saturday in a continuing dispute over pay and conditions. Royal Mail workers are to hold 19 days of strike action over pay and terms and conditions during the peak postal build-up to Christmas. Yet former and current Royal Mail staff have told BBC Panorama that at times letters have been left behind in sorting offices, while parcels and tracked items are prioritised for delivery.

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The CWU is the latest of several unions to ballot for strikes in recent weeks as the cost of living soars. “In the event of industrial action, we have contingency plans to minimise customer disruption and will work to keep people, businesses and the country connected,” a statement said. It comes after the Communication Workers’ Union and Royal Mail failed to reach an agreement over pay and conditions in the face of soaring inflation. But the strike will leave millions of households without important letters, parcels and prescriptions. This is the sixth strike for postal workers, and comes after a summer of unrest which saw rail workers and criminal barristers walk out amid disputes with their employers. Second class letters, which now cost 75p, should arrive within three working days.

IDS bosses said they were not aware of whether personal attacks from either politicians or unions played a part in Thompson’s decision to step down. “We’ve been at a crossroads and we were moving forward, and Simon decided this was the opportunity for him to step down and appoint new leadership,” Williams said. The poor performance led International Distributions Services (IDS), which owns Royal Mail, to report an overall loss of £748m for the year to 26 March. Mr Ward said new Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg had told the union it could meet one of his department’s officials.

Royal Mail reports £1bn loss after postal workers’ strikes

In addition to rejecting the pay offer, the CWU objects to proposed changes to working conditions, such as ending a number of allowances and the introduction of compulsory Sunday working. As per the Trade Union Act in 2016, the result of a ballot is only valid for six months, which mean the CWU will have to re-ballot members if it wants to continue strike action past August 2023. In the most recent strike ballot, 95.9% of the CWU members who voted were in favour of strike action, with a turnout of 77.3% – a result which the CWU says is the biggest ever return in a major national strike ballot. More than 115,000 Royal Mail workers have voted to go on strike in a dispute over pay. Williams said there was now a “clear path towards a more competitive and profitable Royal Mail, delivering improved services for our customers while further reducing our environmental impact”. Picket lines were mounted outside Royal Mail offices on the sixth day of action in recent months.

Around 5,000 members of the TSSA union that represents transport staff, have said they will strike on 26 and 27 September in an ongoing dispute over their pay and conditions. The trade union Aslef has also announced a strike by train drivers at 12 train companies, quebex on Thursday 15th September over pay. Royal Mail is moving from its traditional business of delivering letters – which is no longer profitable – to the fast-growing world of parcel deliveries, driven by the increasing popularity of online shopping.