Consignia talks at Acas despite strike threat
CONSIGNIA, the troubled postal group, has told union leaders that it will tolerate token industrial action as a means of keeping protracted pay talks going.
The Communication Workers Union last week won a ballot for industrial action and has 28 days to implement it. Union leaders are due to meet tomorrow to discuss what type of action might be taken.
Both sides have said they want to carry on negotiations at Acas which today enter their third week. If the union takes no action within 28 days it will lose its mandate and will be forced to reballot.
That is likely to produce a weaker vote in favour of action if employees have already voted once for action only to see nothing occur. Last week’s vote was 63 per cent in favour of action and 37 per cent against.
It is thought that Consignia will tolerate a token strike, which could be of a short duration and maybe not national, in order to exercise the mandate. Then the union would be able to continue taking action if it wanted to, because it had activated the mandate, but both sides would also be able to carry on negotiations without the pressure of a 28-day deadline.
A spokesman for Consignia said: “We will do everything reasonable to facilitate the talks and we will not want to see anything develop that upsets the continued constructive dialogue that we are having with the union.”
The threat of a strike comes as Consignia celebrates its most stable six months for industrial relations in years. Since the Sawyer report last summer on industrial relations, wildcat action has been radically reduced. In the past six months only 200 days have been lost to industrial action. Last year the organisation lost more than 60,000 days.
