UK postal workers set to vote on strike

A strike ballot of 160,000 postal workers is likely today if the union’s talks with Acas officials fail to resolve a pay dispute.

Ballot papers will be sent out with results expected in mid-September unless the talks bring “radical” developments, the Communication Workers’ Union said.

If industrial action is approved, it would be the first national postal strike in seven years and a blow to Allan Leighton, Royal Mail’s chairman.

The dispute centres on Royal Mail’s pay offer and restructuring plans. Designed to reduce heavy losses, it would involve scrapping the second daily mail delivery and cutting staff numbers by 30,000.

Royal Mail is offering a pay rise of 14.5 per cent over 18 months, which, it says, would bring a postal worker’s weekly wage up to £300.

But the offer is linked to changes in working practices, including altered shifts and productivity targets.

The CWU said yesterday’s offer by Royal Mail to apply pay increases and productivity conditions regionally was insignificant.

Both sides have traded charges of foot-dragging. Royal Mail said it had spent an hour at Acas without the other side but the union said it had been busy with a postal executive meeting.

Ray Ellis, senior negotiator for the union, said: “By the time our meeting had finished, Royal Mail had left Acas. It seems that they had other meetings arranged half an hour after they arrived.

“If Royal Mail will negotiate, a dispute can be averted. If it will not, we will be launching a formal industrial dispute ballot.”