Britain's Royal Mail, Union Halt Talks; Postal Workers Want To Scrutinize Deal Terms

Britain’s Royal Mail and its postal workers’ union have agreed last Thursday 18th October to temporarily suspend negotiations on the terms of a new agreement that will end their four-month dispute.

Union officials insisted on closely scrutinizing the details of the deal, including the 6.9 percent pay adjustment over two years for postal workers, before putting the contract to a vote.

The review of the terms effectively delays the signing of the compromise that will finally put the labor dispute behind them.

BBC reported that Royal Mail had agreed to meet the Communication Workers Union (CWU) to clarify outstanding issues, but it added that “the agreement reached and endorsed last Friday by CWU general secretary Billy Hayes and deputy general secretary Dave Ward stands.”

Marathon talks between Royal Mail and CWU last Friday resulted in an outline for a settlement of the dispute. Contested areas included pay, pension fund reform, retirement age and working practices and these were expected to have been ironed out in the settlement.

The union’s executives should approve the deal and thereafter, put it to the vote by the CWU’s 130,000 members. The vote was originally set for middle of this week had the union officials endorsed the agreement.

The labor row stemmed from Royal Mail’s plan to modernize to keep up with the highly competitive mail industry. Union leaders claimed its plans have no regard for its employees.

Workers had been staging unofficial strikes in east London and parts of Scotland since June prior to Friday’s negotiations.

Despite the loss of its monopoly, Royal Mail still operates most British postal services and employs 195,000 people.