Royal Mail and Unite agree pay deal
Royal Mail has announced today (13 June) that, following further talks, it has reached a negotiators’ agreement with Unite on the 2015 and 2016 pay awards for junior and middle managers in Royal Mail Group (excluding Parcelforce Worldwide). The pay offer is still subject to a ballot by Unite members, but the union will recommend that its members accept the pay offer.
The main terms of the pay offer are:
- 1.6% increase to basic pay, flowing through to allowances, regional pay and overtime from September 2015;
- A further 1.3% applied on the same basis from September 2016;
- Managers in HRS and broadband grades will have their pay awards applied using the standard practice for those populations.
- If the August 2016 RPI figure is outside the range of 1.05% to 1.55%, either party may seek further discussions for the September 2016 pay award.
- The next pay review will be due in September 2017.
As a result of this agreement, Unite has suspended its work to rule, overtime ban and other potential industrial action with immediate effect. The union will now be putting the proposed agreement to its members in a ballot as soon as arrangements can be made.
UPDATE AT 17:00
Unite has also issued a statement this afternoon, in which says that the agreement with Royal Mail on the two-year pay deal “removes the possibility of industrial action that could have affected 27 million households across the UK”.
The statement also quoted Brian Scott, the Unite officer for Royal Mail managers, as saying: “Unite will be recommending the pay package to our 4,800 manager members who showed exemplary solidarity during this dispute which enabled us to reach this agreement.
“Equally importantly, Unite welcomes the commitment from Royal Mail to urgently examine issues that the union has identified as of being concern to our members and which affect them at work.
“The company and the employees will work closely together on these issues, which include having the right level of staffing to provide the service that the public expects, after the recent round of redundancies.
“Unite will be balloting its members with a positive recommendation to accept the offer of 1.6% from September 2015 and 1.3% from September 2016. The ballot will happen as soon as practical.”
As previously reported, the Royal Mail managers who are members of Unite had originally voted for industrial action (now suspended), after rejecting a 1.3% pay offer for the year starting September 2015.
