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Royal Mail’s main trade union is to ballot more than 100,000 workers on industrial action, as a labour dispute threatens to erupt into the first nationwide strikes since the postal service was privatised.
The Communication Workers Union has set out plans to consult its members over a disagreement that it said relates to issues including employment terms and conditions and job security.
The move marks a dramatic deterioration of industrial relations at the FTSE 250 company, which averted nationwide walkouts in 2017 over the closure of a retirement fund.
A ballot of CWU members is scheduled to open on September 24, with the result due on October 8. This raises the possibility of serious disruption in the run-up to the peak season ahead of Christmas, a crucial time for the business.
The move is likely to pile further pressure on chief executive Rico Back, who since taking the reins at the 500-year-old company in June last year has seen Royal Mail’s shares sink below the price of its 2013 stock market listing.
“We have not received formal notification of a ballot from CWU. We are disappointed that they have set out a ballot timetable while discussions are ongoing,” said Royal Mail. “We are committed to open and constructive engagement with the CWU. We all want a successful and sustainable company.”
Union officials left the door open to reconciliation, saying that the timetable allowed “a period of weeks for further dialogue/external mediation”.
Royal Mail workers last staged a nationwide strike 10 years ago. A walkout was only avoided in 2017 after the company won a high court injunction forcing the CWU back to the negotiating table. On that occasion, almost nine in 10 CWU members had voted in favour of industrial action on a turnout of 73 per cent.
The company is one of the UK’s largest private sector employers but is obliged to deliver mail six days a week anywhere in the country at the same price.
At the heart of the current dispute is the CWU’s charge that Royal Mail is not honouring the “spirit and intent” of a wide-ranging labour deal signed last year. This included pay rises, new pension proposals and a pledge to reduce weekly working hours from 39 to 35 by 2022, subject to productivity initiatives.
The accord was one of the last actions of previous chief executive Moya Greene, but Royal Mail subsequently issued a profit warning last autumn after missing productivity targets.
In a letter to members, the CWU said it believed Royal Mail was “following [its] own agenda that will have long-term detrimental effects on our members’ terms and conditions of employment, job security and the future of [Royal Mail Group] as a whole”.
The union has also voiced concerns at Royal Mail’s proposal to separate its Parcelforce Worldwide unit into a separate legal entity, fearing a break-up of the group.
This week Royal Mail said it was abiding by the 2018 agreement and had already granted two pay rises and the first hour’s reduction in working time, despite not generating all the savings to pay for it.
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