An Post condemns strike action decision
A decision by An Post staff to strike over a pay disagreement is grossly irresponsible and unnecessary, the postal company said.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) voted almost unanimously to take industrial action, with 90% of those who took part in a national ballot supporting the move.
The union is demanding full payment of the terms of its Sustaining Progress agreement, claiming workers and pensioners have been left without the minimum in cost of living increases.
An Post has not honoured the terms of the deal, pleading inability to pay because of financial difficulties.
In a statement An Post said: “Disruption of the national postal service by members of the Communications’ Workers Union is grossly irresponsible and unnecessary.
“It will only inconvenience customers, further damage An Post’s business and seriously jeopardise jobs.”
“A proposal that the CWU end its ban on the Company’s hiring of casual staff in Dublin so that An Post can counteract high levels of delivery staff absenteeism has been long-fingered by the union, despite their hollow cries of concern about quality of service.
“The national postal service can no longer be held to ransom by a union whose only focus is resistance to change and the preservation of a self-serving overtime culture,” it said.
“That the country is being forced to deal with postal service disruption during the busiest weeks of the year for Irish companies underlines the failure of the CWU leadership to fully grasp or accept the serious business realities facing the An Post.
“Their approach shows a complete lack of interest in customers, the company and institutions such as the Labour Court who have devoted so much time and so many resources to the resolution of the serious issues facing An Post and its workforce,” the company said.
The postal company said it agreed with a recent Labour Court recommendation to pay the full terms of sustaining progress, in a deal linked to an end to work practices in its mail collection and delivery operation which it described as outdated, inflexible and over-time ridden.
But the CWU said the two issues should not be connected, and that all workers should not be asked to agree to changes which would only seriously affect staff in collection and delivery sections.
“The company has broken every agreement it has made, and the union doesn’t want to agree to anything new until the company settles its outstanding debts,” a spokeswoman for the union said.
