Tag: Royal Mail

An end to the bitter postal workers’ dispute is in sight after union leaders ratified a deal on pay and modernisation aimed at halting months of disruption to mail deliveries.

Around 130,000 members of the Communication Workers Union will now vote on whether to accept the agreement and break the deadlocked row which has cost the Royal Mail tens of millions of pounds and hit domestic and business customers across the UK.

Business groups and the Government welcomed the breakthrough, although MPs on a select committee examining the dispute reported “anger” among workers at the way management had behaved.

The Royal Mail said the deal involved a 5.4 pct pay rise over two years, plus 1.5 pct next year when agreed reforms to the service are delivered.

The retirement age will increase from 60 to 65 and the final salary pension scheme will close to new members from January, to be replaced with a defined contribution scheme. Pension pots built up before next April will be protected.

Royal Mail said there will be full co-operation on the deployment of new technology, while staff will cover for one another within a unit to help absorb a colleague’s absence or an increase in workload.

Business Secretary John Hutton told the Trade and Industry Select Committee the deal was affordable and would help Royal Mail cut costs. He acknowledged the dispute had damaged Royal Mail and lost the firm customers and said he believed industrial action was not justified.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the agreement would now be subject to a ballot by its 130,000 members.

It offers staff a 5.4 pct rise in pay and weekday overtime from 1 October, and an extra 1.5 pct pay hike from next April – conditional on reforms being delivered.

Royal Mail said the deal gave it a “fighting chance” of future success.

‘Settling the dispute’

The firm said the agreement – which brings a summer of costly industrial unrest closer to an end – would enable it to proceed with the modernisation of its operations.

We have been clear that to become competitive we needed flexibility to modernise

Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier

The CWU deliberated for a week before agreeing to back the deal and the BBC’s John Moylan said some of the language in the agreement might worry some workers.

The deal includes a one-off payment to workers of GBP 175 and a commitment to close the final salary pension scheme to new members in February and to existing members in April.

From April 2010, the normal retirement age for workers will be extended from 60 to 65 but existing staff will still be able to claim pensions benefits built up before that date at 60.

The CWU said the agreement “settles all areas of the dispute” and would now be subject to a ballot of union members.

Royal Mail said the agreement would allow it to enforce more flexible working patterns and use new technology more efficiently.