Year: 2003

The left-wing postal union leader behind calls for a national strike has received a 23% rise in his annual pay – 10 times the rate for the postmen he represents.

The increase for Billy Hayes, 40, a former postman from Liverpool who is now general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, is worth an extra £13,461 a year, more than the average annual pay of a postal delivery worker.

His latest pay packet, which has emerged in newly released accounts, rose to £72,210 in 2002. Hayes’s total package was worth £115,000 because the union also paid more than £40,000 into his pension.

His new deputy, Dave Ward, is also thought to be receiving a package worth more than £100,000, prompting accusations that the pair are benefiting from the very “fat cat” pay packages that their union has publicly disparaged.

Hayes claimed not to know how much he was paid, though the union files details to a government department. “I can’t remember but I didn’t think it was that much,” he said. Ward was unavailable for comment.

The Royal Mail is projecting it will bounce back to a profit of GBP100 mln this year, unless it is undermined by the looming threat of industrial action, says chairman Allan Leighton.

A national postal strike could be disastrous for projected profits and Leighton claims that he expects profits to recover by GBP700 mln from last year’s loss of GBP600 mln.

He said that the recovery could falter if negotiations this week to avert the first national postal strike in seven years fail to reach agreement.