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A long-running dispute between Royal Mail workers and their bosses is a step closer to ending.
The company and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have reached a provisional agreement over pay and employment terms.
The proposal will be considered by the union’s executive before being voted on by members.
However details of the deal, including the pay award, were not revealed in a joint statement from the two sides.
It said: “After almost a year of talks, Royal Mail and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) are pleased to announce they have reached a negotiators’ agreement in principle.
“The proposed agreement will now be considered by the executive of the union before being voted on by the union’s membership.
“An announcement on the detailed content of the proposed agreement will be made when it is ratified by the union’s executive committee. It is expected this will take place this week.”
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “We have reached a negotiators’ agreement with Royal Mail group.
“The CWU postal executive will now meet and consider the agreement on Monday and Tuesday and we are putting in place plans to brief representatives across the union’s structures.
“On the basis that the negotiators’ agreement is endorsed by the postal executive, we will put in place a full communications plan to engage members.
“Thank you for your support and patience. It has got us to this point.”
Postal workers in Dumfries and Galloway joined more than 115,000 of their colleagues in strikes across 18 days in the last 12 months. They were unhappy with a two per cent pay rise being “imposed” on them while the company made record profits of £758 million.
Royal Mail bosses said the disruption put jobs at risk and said the company was losing £1 million per day.
