Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) walked out on a 48-hour strike on Friday, hitting post deliveries across the country. The company is encouraging people to post items as early as possible to avoid disruption. Picket lines have been mounted outside Royal Mail offices on the sixth day of action in recent months. The delivery of travel money and Travel Money Cards ordered online will be delayed. This will apply whether you have opted for your travel money to be delivered to your home address or to a nominated branch.
- More than 98% of the members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) who took part in a ballot backed what would be the second walk-out by more than 115,000 postal workers this summer, the union said.
- Evri, the delivery company formerly known as Hermes, said that severe weather, Royal Mail strikes and staff shortages are causing “some localised delays”.
- The union is pushing for a pay offer more in line with inflation, with its members voting overwhelmingly in favour of action.
- Thousands of Royal Mail workers have voted to strike in a dispute over pay in what could be the biggest industrial action of the summer.
Ward said the union would give the company “another opportunity to come back to the negotiating table” but if a deal could not be reached, the CWU would notify Royal Mail of industrial action. They apologised “to our customers for the inconvenience the CWU’s continued strike action will cause”. Royal Mail apologised to customers in advance of the industrial action, but said it had plans in place to minimise the disruption. The union has demanded that Royal Mail increases wages to an amount that “covers the current cost of living”. Speaking on Saturday, CWU general secretary Dave Ward said the union will be offering Royal Mail a way to get back into “serious talks”, offering the chance to suspend industrial action if progress is made. The card company Moonpig has advised customers to order early where possible but said its gifts and flowers use different delivery services so would be unaffected by the strikes.
“Ultimately, those firms reliant on using the postal service to deliver goods will be put at a disadvantage, with consequential negative impact on their bottom lines.” It was estimated that in the first wave of nationwide strikes in 2009, there was a backlog of million pieces of post. The firm has been trying to move away from letter delivery, which it has said is unprofitable, but it is obliged to deliver letters to all parts of the UK. Discussions are “precarious” and in their “last throes”, with the next hours key to settling the dispute, a source close to the talks said. IDS bosses said they were not aware of whether personal attacks from either politicians or unions played a part in Thompson’s decision to step down. “We’ve been at a crossroads and we were moving forward, and Simon decided this was the opportunity for him to step down and appoint new leadership,” Williams said.
2When Royal Mail strikes are happening and how it’ll affect your post
He told Times Radio that they are “terrified” of being deployed to jobs in London because their salaries are not keeping pace with inflation. The median pay at Royal Mail is £32,465 a year, with the average how to recover from stock loss pay for a postal delivery worker lower than that at £25,777. On Wednesday 115,000 Royal Mail workers were on strike while 40,000 BT and Openreach workers stayed out, in action that began on Tuesday.
Picket lines were mounted outside Royal Mail offices on the sixth day of action in recent months. Royal Mail’s international parcels business, GLS, proved a bright spot and is on track to meet market expectations of making a profit of between €370m and €410m for the full year. The company said that it was looking at making redundant up to 6,000 full-time frontline jobs in delivery and processing by the end of August next year. Mr Eatwell claims Royal Mail was looking to cut 700 jobs on top of 1,200 slashed last year, with managers who remain facing cuts to salaries of up to £7,000. Mike Eatwell, Unite national officer with responsibility for Royal Mail, said members have been “forced to the position of taking industrial action because those running Royal Mail refuse to see sense”.
- While the pay deal – which was reached after workers staged 18 days of strike action – will cost about £600m, IDS said it would largely be covered by cost cuts over the next two years.
- If you are ordering travel money online on the day before or the day of strike action, it will not be available for branch collection or home delivery the next working day as normally advertised.
- “Instead of working with us to agree on changes required to fund that offer and get pay into our posties’ pockets, the CWU has announced plans to ballot in the New Year for further strike action.”
Where possible, try to bring any cheques in using the cheque deposit envelope service or cash your cheques two or three days before the date of industrial action to avoid delays. Royal Mail said it expects to make an annual operating loss of about £350m in the year to the end of March 2023. It said that could rise to £450m if customers turn to rivals because of the disruptions to its delivery services.
The union accuses the company of planning structural changes, which would in effect transform employees in secure, well-paid jobs into a “casualised, financially precarious workforce overnight”. The company says it must modernise in order to run a more productive and competitive service. Royal Mail is moving from its traditional business of delivering letters – which is no longer profitable – to the fast-growing world of parcel deliveries, driven by the increasing popularity of online shopping. This is part of a long-running dispute between unions, rail firms, the government and Network Rail over pay, job cuts and changes to terms and conditions. But a spokesman for the CWU said that Royal Mail has offered workers a 3% pay rise this year, 3% next year as well as an additional 2% if employees agree to “the absolute destruction” of terms and conditions. Royal Mail said it had contingency plans in place to minimise disruption but warned post collections will be less frequent on strike days.
Who owns Royal Mail?
It has said the strikes have cost the company £200m in lost business and in covering striking staff. The BBC understands that there may be movement on the current pay offer to unions to try and resolve the issues. Talks to resolve a long-running row with Royal Mail staff over pay and conditions are close to collapse.
When is Royal Mail on strike? All you need to know and how walk out will affect your post
Some of Royal Mail’s competitors were even established, says former postal regulator executive Stephen Gibson, of SLG Economics, because of previous industrial action. “Quality of service has been significantly affected by industrial action and high levels of absence. I am sorry that we have not delivered the high standards of service our customers expect. Williams best forex signal provider said there was now a “clear path towards a more competitive and profitable Royal Mail, delivering improved services for our customers while further reducing our environmental impact”. Those efforts included slashing 10,000 jobs at Royal Mail, a target it reached months before schedule and which will save the business about £150m over the next financial year.
Ricky McAulay, operations director at Royal Mail accused the union of failing to engage in “any meaningful discussion” after more than three months of talks on changes to modernise the company. General Secretary Dave Ward said workers faced the “biggest ever assault” on jobs, terms and conditions “in the history of Royal Mail”. Chairman Keith Williams has said that the firm is losing £1m a day as parcel volumes fall and efforts to modernise the business stall.
“The CWU’s failure to engage on the changes we need is an abdication of responsibility for the long-term job security of their members.” Royal Mail’s latest adjusted operating profit for the year to March was £416m, up from £344m the year before. “The CWU’s message to Royal Mail’s leadership is simple – there will be serious disruption until you get real on pay,” he added. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said workers would walk out on 26 and 31 August and 8 and 9 September. It also said it would prioritise the delivery of Covid-19 test kits and medical prescriptions.
UK’s Royal Mail on strike as further industrial action looms
“We offered a deal worth up to 5.5% for CWU grade colleagues, the biggest increase we have offered for many years, which the CWU rejected. We can only fund this offer by making the changes that will pay for it and ensure Royal Mail can grow and remain competitive in a fast-moving industry. “Further strikes and resistance to transformation by CWU will only make our financial position worse, and threatens the long-term job security of our postmen and women.”
Elsewhere on the BBC
Network Rail wants to cut 1,900 jobs as part of changes to the way its maintenance teams work – although it insists most of this could be achieved by people leaving voluntarily. The government’s emergency Cobra committee will hold its second meeting of the week later to discuss how to minimise the impact of the wave of industrial action. And on Friday, rail workers, buses, baggage handlers, highway workers and driving examiners will walk out. Evri, the delivery company formerly known as Hermes, said that severe weather, Royal Mail strikes and staff shortages are causing “some localised delays”.
It comes as Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the strikers, had rejected a pay rise offer “worth up to 5.5%” after three months of talks. The CWU said the plans included delaying the arrival of post to the public by three hours, cuts in workers’ sick pay and inferior terms for new employees. Stocks of foreign currency may be lower than usual on days of industrial action, meaning that we may not be able to fulfil your request if you go into a branch to purchase travel money without pre-ordering.
Any items posted in postboxes or Post Offices the day before, during or following strike dates are likely to be subject to delays. Royal Mail has also promised to “prioritise the delivery of Covid test kits and medical prescriptions wherever what is cfd trading possible” when strikes are taking place, alongside other Tracked24 parcels. Talks between the two sides were held on Thursday but there was no sign progress and the union is planning to step up industrial action in the coming weeks.
What does Royal Mail say?
The last time national strikes by postal workers were seen in the UK was in 2009, when a series of walkouts led to widespread disruption. Thousands of Royal Mail workers have voted to strike in a dispute over pay in what could be the biggest industrial action of the summer. Royal Mail workers are to hold 19 days of strike action over pay and terms and conditions during the peak postal build-up to Christmas. “There can be no doubt that postal workers are completely united in their determination to secure the dignified, proper pay rise they deserve,” he said.