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Royal Mail workers are to stage walkouts over four days in August and September over pay.
The strikes, by more than 115,000 workers, will be the first national walk-outs of postal staff, including delivery workers and those in sorting offices, since 2013.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said workers are striking for a “dignified, proper pay rise”.
It is calling for “an adequate pay award that covers the current cost of living increases for our members”.
Why are Royal Mail workers striking?
The planned industrial action is over pay.
Royal Mail has said the union had rejected a pay rise offer “worth up to 5.5 per cent” after three months of talks.
The CWU has called this figure “a blatant lie”.
In a statement Royal Mail told i: “Following the conclusion of negotiations with the CWU, including completing our mutually agreed Dispute Resolution Processes, Royal Mail announced it would award CWU grade colleagues in the UK an unconditional 2% pay increase, backdated to 1 April 2022.
“A further 3.5% increase is available, subject to agreeing on a series of changes and including a new ‘above and beyond’ bonus. The CWU rejected this offer, worth up to 5.5%, which would add around £230 million to Royal Mail annual people costs at a time when the business is already loss making – in the Q1 trading update published on 20 July, Royal Mail announced it was losing a million pounds a day and the proposed pay deal adds more than half a million pounds a day to that figure. This can only be paid for with meaningful business change.”
Ricky McAulay, operations director at Royal Mail, said: “The CWU rejected our offer worth up to 5.5 per cent for CWU grade colleagues, the biggest increase we have offered for many years,” he said.
“In a business that is currently losing £1m a day, we can only fund this offer by agreeing the changes that will pay for it.”
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said that postal workers were being “pushed to the brink”.
“We can’t keep on living in a country where bosses rake in billions in profit while their employees are forced to use food banks,” he said.
“When Royal Mail bosses are raking in £758 million in profit and shareholders pocketing in excess of £400 million, our members won’t accept pleads of poverty from the company.
More on Strikes
“Postal workers won’t meekly accept their living standards being hammered by greedy business leaders who are completely out of touch with modern Britain.
“They are sick of corporate failure getting rewarded again and again.
“The CWU’s message to Royal Mail’s leadership is simple – there will be serious disruption until you get real on pay.”
When are they going on strike?
Royal Mail staff plan to strike on:
- Friday 26 August
- Wednesday 31 August
- Thursday 8 September
- Friday 9 September
How will the strikes affect services?
Letters will not be delivered on strike days, Royal Mail has said.
In a statement, it added: “Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but they cannot fully replace the daily efforts of its frontline workforce. We will be doing what we can to keep services running, but customers should expect significant disruption.”
On days when industrial action is taking place, Royal Mail says it will:
- Deliver as many special delivery and tracked 24 parcels as possible
- Prioritise the delivery of Covid test kits and medical prescriptions wherever possible
- Not be delivering letters (with the exception of special delivery)
Items posted the day before, during or in the days after any strike action will be subject to delay.
Royal Mail said as it cannot guarantee delivery of all special delivery items by 9am or 1pm next day, it is suspending the regular guarantees while strike action is occurring.
It is also advising people to:
- Post items as early as possible in advance of the strike dates
- Continue to post items at post boxes or Post Offices, but be aware collections will be less frequent on days when strike action is taking place
