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(Bloomberg) — Royal Mail’s main union said a new pay offer submitted by the UK postal service in the latest round of negotiations is too low and would bring unnecessary upheaval to delivery rounds.
The proposal would provide a 7% raise spread over two years plus a 2% lump sum for 2022, contingent on an agreement on more flexible hours, including start times and Sunday working, Royal Mail said in a statement Monday. The London-based company had previously pitched a 5.5% hike this year.
The Communication Workers Union, which represents around 115,000 delivery workers and sorting-office staff, said the offer is “well below” the rate of inflation and requires “unacceptable changes” to working patterns.
Royal Mail is seeking wholesale changes to delivery schedules as it targets a bigger slice of the next-day parcels market after the coronavirus pandemic accelerated a shift toward online shopping. The firm also announced plans last month to cut 10,000 jobs, partly due to strike losses, as the CWU resists the changes and campaigns for significantly higher wages.
Royal Mail management and CWU officials resumed talks at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, Britain’s state-backed mediator, though the union said that Chief Executive Officer Simon Thompson had failed to attend, despite confirming Sunday that he would do so.
The new pay offer comes after the labor group was forced to scrap six days of industrial action over the next two weeks amid a legal challenge from the company. The union said its postal executive will meet Tuesday to call further strikes.
Owner-Drivers
The CWU also said that Royal Mail is poised to impose “lesser terms” for new recruits and begin using owner-drivers, introducing “a service that will be comparable to Uber.” Further proposals include “wholesale site closures” to mail centers, it said.
Shares of Royal Mail parent International Distributions Services Plc traded 5.8% higher as of 3:55 p.m. in London, buoyed by the UK government’s decision not to stand in the way of moves by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to increase a stake in the firm held through Vesa Equity Investment.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
