UK Postal workers seek 8% increase in pay
Postal workers stepped up their conflict with the Royal Mail yesterday, asking for an immediate pay rise of 8%.
The Royal Mail has offered postmen and women a 14.5% increase over 18 months, which it says would bring the weekly wage up to £300.
But the extra money is linked to changes in working practices, including altered shifts and productivity targets, and the Communication Workers’ Union claims the real rise only equates to 3% a year.
Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said yesterday: “We want a decent up-front pay rise, but we must also have proper input into the programme of change at national and local levels.”
As part of a programme to reduce losses, the Royal Mail wants to scrap the second daily mail delivery and cut staff numbers by 30,000.
The CWU has rejected both the Royal Mail’s pay offer and its policy on job cuts, and is planning to ballot its 160,000 postal members on strike action between August 27 and September 17.
Union leaders accept the need for reform in the service but say members should not have to put up with “random redundancies and vastly increased workloads”.
“This union will not sign up to the kind of ‘slash and burn’ restructuring which would rip the heart out of the industry and deal a fatal blow to a valued public service,” said Mr Ward.
