Voting underway for Royal Mail’s union pay and pensions deals

Royal Mail’s non-managerial staff are voting from today as to whether to accept the three-year pay deal negotiated last month. The 115,000 staff at the newly-privatised company who are members of the Communication Workers Union will have their say on the new contract until the ballot closes on 5th February.

The deal is based on a pay rise of 9.05% over the three-year term, plus an upfront £200 bonus.

The CWU said the deal also includes pledges by Royal Mail not to outsource, sell or transfer any part of the business, and not to force any lay-offs.

A separate deal up for the vote looks at pension arrangements, with the union stating that it provides “significant safeguards” for members’ defined benefit pensions.

Commenting on the contract, CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the deal was long-term and legally-binding, protecting jobs, pay and pensions.

He said it also sets Royal Mail Group’s strategy and values in place following last year’s flotation on the London Stock Exchange.

Ward, who led the union’s negotiations for the agreement, said: “The agreements secured mean a privately owned Royal Mail Group cannot maximise its profit by minimising the value of jobs and replicating the competitors terms and conditions and puts postal workers in the strongest position possible to face the future.”

Contract

The 9.06% pay deal offered by Royal Mail last month meant the company avoided damaging strike action in the run-up to Christmas. The deal came as an improvement on the 8.6%-over-three-years pay rise offered by the company last summer.

The contract includes new incentives for employees to push for improved efficiency, and a strategy for how to grow the parcels business while retaining the letters business.

Union members would also be voting to use the mediation process in future industrial disputes as a way of avoiding industrial action.

According to the terms of the deal, Royal Mail would be able to review legal protections included in the contract in January 2019. This would include the provision not to outsource, sell or transfer any part of the business.

The CWU leadership was today urging members to back the two agreements.

Ward said: “We believe the extended protections offered by the legally binding nature of both agreements is not only significant for our members but sets a new precedent for the wider labour movement in the UK.”