Postal Dispute - Period of Calm Update

Negotiations have taken place between CWU and Royal Mail over the last five weeks, but ended on Sunday without agreement.

However, there has been progress in a number of areas, including pay. Although talks are set to continue the union is disappointed that Royal Mail has ended the agreed ‘period of calm’.

Royal Mail have announced that they will implement unagreed operational changes. The first of these will be a change to delivery start times from the 8th of October 2007.

As a result, despite being committed to further talks and being determined to reach an agreement, CWU will announce further strikes. The union's postal executive will meet on Monday 17th September to finalise their decision.

A summary of the latest rejected proposal is as follows.

SUMMARY OF REJECTED PROPOSAL

Pay
A number of options that amount to 6.7% on basic pay over two years with additional lump sums. This includes more money in the first year.

Flexibility
A range of proposals which amount to total flexibility where postal workers will not know what job they are performing from day to day.

Pensions
The company has virtually re-tabled the previous rejected proposal as revealed by the Daily Mirror, including a reduction in benefits, increased employee contributions and later retirement age.

No final agreement on a number of areas including job security, personnel procedures, automation, productivity and network changes.