UK Post Office faces union threat over pay deal

THE main postal union yesterday threatened to take industrial action if Allan Leighton, chairman of the Royal Mail, failed to offer a more attractive pay deal.
Mr Leighton has tabled a 14.5 per cent pay rise over 18 months, but the Communication Workers Union said that the rise was worth only 4.5 per cent because most of it was linked to productivity rises.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary, said: “At some point it may be necessary for us to ballot on industrial action. The time is fast approaching when we cannot sit back and keep being told that our members are the most valuable asset in the industry without delivering real, up-front investment in this asset.”

The CWU said that the pay proposal was “smoke and mirrors, the business’s way of replacing their so-called treacle with jam tomorrow or, in their case, probably never at all”.

Mr Leighton angered union leaders by going over their heads to write to all 180,000 employees to offer the wage increase. The chairman said he was frustrated at the pace of progress over the pay talks.

A deal, which is crucial to the future of Royal Mail, is due to be agreed by October.