CWU and Royal Mail to restart talks over strikes
The union will decide whether to take legal action to stop Royal Mail using 30,000 temporary workers to help with deliveries, reports The Guardian. The article continues:
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail management will recommence talks at the TUC today, as the parties strive to reach an agreement ahead of Thursday’s planned second round of strikes.
The CWU said yesterday’s discussions had been “useful” but that neither party would be making any further comment.
But a spokeswoman said it expected to make a decision today on whether to take legal action to stop Royal Mail using 30,000 temporary workers drafted in to help with deliveries.
The CWU has accused Royal Mail of breaking the law but it insists the move is not illegal because the agency staff will be dealing solely with the backlog caused by the strike.
“We are expecting a decision later today on whether we will be going ahead with a legal challenge,” the CWU said.
Royal Mail said yesterday that the volume of delayed mail caused by last week’s industrial action was expected to have fallen to 5m items by last night.
On Friday, it said that 30m letters had been delayed. The CWU claimed the figure was over 100m on Saturday. Up to
120,000 CWU members will walk out in three 24-hour strikes from Thursday if no deal can be reached. The dispute centres on pay, modernisation and flexible working.
The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said last night: “We have had useful discussions today and the talks are being adjourned to allow further work to be done overnight on some of the issues involved.”
