Postal workders to vote on industrial action

Postal services may be hit by a national strike. Almost 150,000 Royal Mail workers are to be balloted on industrial action over a pay dispute.

The Communication Workers Union is seeking a 5 per cent pay increase, and a basic minimum wage of Pounds 300 a week by October next year. John Keggie, the deputy general secretary, said that an offer of 2 per cent was a “pittance” compared with salaries paid to executives.

He accused the postal group Consignia of treating workers unfairly and said its offer amounted to less than Pounds 5 per week when some directors were earning Pounds 4,000 a week. Average basic pay at present was said to be Pounds 250 a week.

Mick Linsell, managing director for service delivery at Royal Mail, was “bitterly disappointed” by the ballot decision. He said that workers had been offered an additional 0.5 per cent linked to service performance targets. Consignia said the pay offer would cost Pounds 60 million. Mr Keggie replied that the extra cash would apply to about 45 per cent of workers and that it involved the removal of some drivers’ allowances.

The clash comes as the two sides are locked in talks over up to 30,000 job cuts after losses. Consignia, which last year lost Pounds 281 million in six months, is trying to cut costs by Pounds 1.2 billion. The company has promised to try to avoid compulsory redundancies but wants an agreement on job cuts by the end of the month.

Consignia and the CWU have been negotiating over pay for months and the proposed increase should have been implemented last October. Strike ballot papers will be sent out shortly and a result will be announced early next month.

If called, it would be the first nationalRoyal Mail strike since 1996.

(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2002