Royal Mail's largest union clears agreement over pay, to vote soon (updated)
21/04/2023 12:49
(Adds details of agreement, background)
April 21 (Reuters) - Royal Mail's largest union on
Friday approved an agreement it reached last week with the UK
postal services firm over pay and other employment terms and
will put it to vote in the coming weeks.
Communication Workers Union (CWU) will recommend its members
in Royal Mail and Parcelforce vote in favour of the agreement,
which includes a 10% salary increase and a one-off lump sum of
500 pounds ($619.15), Royal Mail's parent International
Distributions Services (IDS) IDSI.L said.
The latest development comes after a prolonged period of
strikes and disruption to regular business as more than 110,000
postal workers at Royal Mail held several nationwide strikes in
2022.
The dispute had escalated after Royal Mail warned of job
cuts and said it was reviewing a number of historic agreements
and policies that it said the union used to frustrate its
transformation into a parcels-led business.
A total of 18 days of strikes by Royal Mail postal workers
between August and December had cost the parcels and postal
company more than 200 million pounds.
The pay hike in the latest deal is in line with Britain's
inflation, which fell to 10.1% last month from 10.4% in
February. Britain is the only country in Western Europe with
double-digit inflation in March.
The agreement also includes no compulsory redundancies until
April 2025, at which time the condition will be reviewed.
IDS also said Royal Mail's starting time for deliveries will
be moved back from March 2024 and regular Sunday working will be
added only to new employee contracts.
($1 = 0.8076 pounds)
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilpaambil and Yadarisa Shabong in
Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
((Yadarisa.Shabong@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9742735150;))