Post Office Ltd facing “serious” disruption over union pay demands

Britain’s Communication Workers Union is threatening serious disruption to the supply of equipment and cash to post offices across the UK. The union said hundreds of its members within Post Office Ltd’s admin and supply chain division are set to begin voting on taking possible action in a ballot starting tomorrow.

The CWU said the consultative ballot comes in response to mounting frustration over a “stubborn refusal” by the state-owned company to meet pay demands.

The union said just one day of action taken last autumn by the admin and supply chain staff saw Post Office Ltd backing down over its refusal to increase basic pay, offering “serious” pay negotiations to take place this year.

But, CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey said yesterday that so far, the company’s offer has come in well below expectations.

“We’ve been in discussions with the business since the start of this year and the annual pay review became due on April 1st,” he said, “but after spending the first few months refusing to make an offer at all, POL finally made an offer last month that was well below inflation.”

“This offer was rejected as an insult to our hard-working members – and we also rejected the company’s divisive tactics of offering different settlements to different grades,” he added.

Ballot

The consultative ballot runs until 1st October. It does not see members voting to strike, but to support the union’s continuing pressure on management. The union would have to hold an official strike ballot before deciding to begin industrial action.

Furey said Post Office Ltd was “playing games”, and warned that if the members’ pay demands were not settled, the company could find itself the subject of a full strike ballot.

“I’m urging Post Office senior management to remember and remember well just how rock-solid our action was last year,” he said. “Unless the company gets real and improves their offer, we could end up in a serious industrial dispute.”