UK Royal Mail writes to staff over pay offer

Royal Mail Has written to its 160,000 postmen and women in a bid to head off the threat of its first national strike over pay in seven years.

Royal Mail executives are due to meet Communication Workers’ Union officials at Acas, the conciliation service, for discussions over the deadlocked pay talks.

In the letters, Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton tells workers that the offer will increase their minimum basic pensionable pay from £262 to £300 a week, and that it will eliminate the six-day working week.

The offer is linked to changes including a move to a single daily delivery.

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward immediately called Mr Leighton’s letter a “direct snub” to his negotiating team – and said the union was not lifting the strike threat.

He described Mr Leighton, who was appointed by the Government in January 2002, as a “spanner in the works” who was attacking national pay bargaining.

Mr Ward warned: “Our members are angry and are growing impatient.

“We would need to hear a significantly improved offer from Royal Mail before we would reconsider our position on the industrial action ballot. The ballot timetable was designed to allow time for talks but the talking can’t go on forever.”

The ballot is due to be announced on August 14, with papers being sent out on August 21. It closes on September 11.

Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said: “It is important that all the detail of the money available and the changes that make £300 a week possible are shared openly with everyone involved.”