Irish postal unions reject offer to lift freeze on wage increase
AN Post has agreed to lift a pay freeze and pay part of the national wage deal to its workers – but the four postal unions have rejected the proposed compromise.
After 18 months of growing bitterness, union chiefs cannot persuade their members and post office pensioners to settle for a partial increase.
Both sides were at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) yesterday to give their responses to a suggestion by two independent assessors that the company, which had pleaded inability to pay, increase wages by 5pc.
The full Sustaining Progress pay deal is worth over 13pc cumulative and the 8.1pc balance would be subject to “cost off-setting measures”. As their report is not binding, the issue can now be referred on to the Labour Court.
The assessors had recommended the 5pc payment but only back-dated to last January.
Last night An Post operations director Larry Donald said that the 5pc pay rise would be paid to staff from the end of this month, irrespectively, and back-dated to last January.
“We have accepted the assessors’ report as a fair and reasonable reflection of the current circumstances in An Post,” he added.
Last week the Labour Court received a separate expert report on productivity changes in An Post which has been a bitter issue of contention as the company plans to axe at least 1,500 jobs, mainly in local postal sorting offices.
Communications Workers’ Union leader Steve Fitzpatrick last night said that his members and the company pensioners were furious that they had been deprived of legitimate cost-of-living pay rises.
He added that it would be very difficult to convince them to accept a major job cuts deal in the absence of being paid the full terms of the Sustaining Progress package.
Mr Fitzpatrick added that the continued imposition of a pay freeze could strongly influence the approach of the four postal unions to any follow-on agreement.
The CWU, CPSU, PSEU and AHCPS unions had traditionally supported central partnership pay deals but they may be more cautious when preparations begin this coming September for a replacement for Sustaining Progress.
Under Sustaining Progress the management of any financially troubled company can plead an inability to pay the increases.
In turn the employees must seek an assessment of its finances if they wish to pursue their claim for a pay rise.
Usually these binding assessments are on an all-or-nothing basis but since the postal unions took over 15 months to use the process the management opted for the alternative, non-binding process which could see the assessors’ report being referred to the Labour Court.
Assessors Brian Aylward and Ray McElroy found that the company is currently in a position to pay a full 5pc of Sustaining Progress for this year.
They advised that any further retrospection of back-pay would be unnecessarily damaging to An Post.
They reported that the employees will have to agree to the implementation of management plans to axe 1,500 jobs and close district mail sorting offices if the State company would be in a position to meet any future pay rises worth just over 8pc.
Gerald FlynnIndustrial Correspondent
