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CWU blasted Royal Mail for their response to the ‘tone deaf’ prank
Royal Mail was forced to apologise after a manager announced an 11% pay rise for staff, only to reveal it was an April Fool’s Day prank.
The announcement was made in a letter which suggested Royal Mail and the Communication Worker’s Union (CWU) had reached an agreement, and listed a series of improved conditions and a 11% backdated pay increase.
The tone-deaf prank letter was put out across the Royal Mail Gloucester North base, apparently on every work bench where employees were stationed.
This comes at a time when industrial relations between the CWU and Royal Mail have been described as at ‘rock bottom’, as today it was announced that negotiations between the two parties concluded last night without an agreement.
As well as stating employees would receive a 11% backdated pay rise, the conditions listed in the joke letter included the reintroduction of shorter deliveries, removal of ‘Scan In Scan Out’ and a recruitment campaign to employ 10,000 new Telegram boys.
Royal Mail has since been blasted after issuing an apology on behalf of the manager, which has been seen as a double-standard against the treatment of union members being dismissed or suspended for much less, according to CWU.
In an interview with LBC, CWU National Executive Council member Tony Bouch said the letter had back-fired.
“For Royal Mail to come out and apologise on behalf of the manager whose done this, is complete double standards to the way their employees are being treated for similar offences,” Bouch told LBC.
“It’s sensitive when circa 300 CWU reps and members are facing in lots of examples trumped up charges around conduct and their behaviour for which they’ve been suspended, some since September.
“People have been dismissed for instances like letting off a gender reveal smoke flare that’s the colour of the union on a picket line.
“That’s where the outrage from this poster comes from, Royal Mail employees are being held to account on a zero-tolerance policy and yet they haven’t denied this poster was put out and put on every workplace, they’ve just said it was a prank that went wrong and we apologise.”
Bouch said it came down to ‘integrity’, at a time when the union is trying to get an independent review into the treatment of members and reps facing supposedly trumped up charges, and at a time when talks are at the ‘most delicate stage it’s ever been’ in terms of getting an agreement in place to solve the dispute.
Today it was announced that negotiations between the CWU and Royal Mail Group concluded last night without an agreement.
According to CWU, the company advised the union that the directors who have been leading negotiations are no longer available and that the Board will meet today to determine their next steps.
CWU said they will be consulting with the union’s Postal Executive later today and considering all available options for their next steps.
Hannah Davenport is trade union reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward’s trade union reporting is supported by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust
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