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// Royal Mail warns it could post a loss in the UK for the full-year 2022-23, if four days of strike called by the CWU in August and September go ahead
// The company said it has contingency plans in place and will be working hard to minimise disruption
Royal Mail has said it would be “materially loss-making” in the UK for the 2022-23 full year, if its employees go ahead with planned strike action.
Over 115,000 Royal Mail postal workers are set to strike for four days in a dispute over pay, with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the workers, announcing that 24-hour walkouts will happen on 26 and 31 August, as well as 8 and 9 September.
The British postal service had negotiated with the CWU on salaries, and offered an unconditional increase of 2% with an additional 3.5% conditional on agreements to improve productivity.
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The CWU rejected this 5.5% increase, which Royal Mail said would have added about £230m to the company’s annual costs “at a time when the business is already loss making.”
The company admitted it was already losing £1m a day according to its trading update for the first quarter and the proposed pay deal would add over £500,000 a day to that amount.
The decision to strike came after last month’s ballot, which saw employees vote 97.6% in favour of walking out on a 77% turnout.
The company has said it has contingency plans in place and will be working hard to minimise disruption and restore normal service as soon as possible.
Tuesday’s strike announcement is the latest industrial action in the country as workers demand wage rises to cope with soaring inflation across the UK which is expected to peak at over 13% in October.
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