Strike threat thaws pay freeze at UK’s Crown post offices

Staff in the UK’s network of 373 Crown post offices are set to gain a 3.68% pay increase and a £1,000 bonus under a new two-year pay deal. The Communication Workers Union said yesterday that its threat of industrial action had helped win the deal, along with a guarantee that no Crown post offices would close in the next 12 months.

The union’s members voted earlier this month to strike after Post Office Ltd “refused to budge” from its imposed pay freeze.

The company had said its network of Crown post offices was “unsustainable”, losing £55m a year, and that without a £150m annual government subsidy, would have recorded an operating loss in 2010-111.

But under the new pay deal more than 4,000 staff in the Crown post offices – post offices owned by Royal Mail subsidiary Post Office Ltd rather than franchisees – will now receive a 2.25% pay rise backdated for 2010-11, a 1.4% pay rise for the year from April 1, 2011, as well as the £1,000 lump sum payment.

Regarding Crown post office closures, the union said its agreement would see the 373-strong network remaining “intact”, with no further closures for at least 12 months.

The union said it would be consulted on any potential review of the Crown post office network.

Crown post offices represent about 3% of the overall network of UK post offices.

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said yesterday that the pay deal had been won through a “hard set of negotiations”.

He said the guarantee that no Crown post offices would close in the next year was equally important as the pay increase.

“The scale and quality of postal services is under threat from government plans to break up and privatise Royal Mail Group along with a declining market, so job security has been a major focus of our talks with the company,” Ward explained.

The agreement with the Post Office does still require formal approval by the union membership, who will vote during the first two weeks of April.