UK Royal Mail workers to demand a pay rise of GBP 80 a week
Royal Mail is expected to face demands for a steep rise in postal workers’ pay as the Communication Workers Union launches a campaign to raise pay levels so that they are in line with the national average.
The union wants pay to increase by Pounds 80 a week from the basic level of Pounds 311, a rise of 25 per cent. The CWU will not ask for the Pounds 80 all at once but could make a claim for Pounds 40 next year followed by Pounds 40 the year after.
A spokesman for the CWU said: “We are Pounds 80 a week behind the national average wage. We need to have a fresh look at pay. The talks will be tied up with the future of Royal Mail.”
The postal organisation is at a crossroads, with key decisions on funding likely to be taken by the Government in the next few weeks. Royal Mail wants Pounds 2 billion from the Government to fund investment in equipment and to ease its Pounds 4 billion pension deficit. But new equipment will automate large parts of the business and lead to heavy job losses.
Royal Mail’s last restructuring led to 30,000 job cuts. These were accepted by the union but if another round of thousands of job cuts cannot be done voluntarily there could be a ballot for strike action.
The two sides have had early talks about pay but negotiations begin in earnest next month. Last year they agreed a pay deal but two years ago there was a protracted battle that led to a ballot for strike action, which the union narrowly lost. It is believed that the CWU is drawing up a range of strategies to ensure that it would win a new ballot.
