A representative for Royal Mail said that the company must modernise its working practices to address its losses, which it says amount to £1 million per day. We feel we’re moving forward, but it is still an option if we don’t,” Williams said. Together, those problems overshadowed what IDS said were successful efforts to cut costs and “rightsize” the business in the second half of the financial year.
In addition to rejecting the pay offer, the CWU objects to proposed changes to working conditions, such as ending a number of allowances and the introduction of compulsory Sunday working. This is because Parcelforce is owned by Royal Mail, so some CWU members who collect, sort and deliver parcels for Parcelforce will be striking. “We are doing all we can to minimise any delays and keep people, businesses and the country connected.” Picket lines were mounted outside Royal Mail offices on the sixth day of action in recent months.
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- The trade union Aslef has also announced a strike by train drivers at 12 train companies, on Thursday 15th September over pay.
- The union accuses the company of planning structural changes, which would in effect transform employees in secure, well-paid jobs into a “casualised, financially precarious workforce overnight”.
But now the postal service is facing a fresh challenge as thousands of its workers have voted for strike action. Here’s everything we know so far, including https://g-markets.net/ when is Royal Mail on strike and whether Post Offices will be open. Royal Mail workers staged strike action over three days in August and September.
“The proposed agreement will now be considered by the executive of the union before being voted on by the union’s membership. General Secretary Dave Ward said workers faced the “biggest ever assault” on jobs, terms and conditions “in the history of Royal Mail”. If you’re ordering something online and have the option of paying a little more for a faster delivery, or delivery through a courier rather than Royal Mail, then it is worth considering. If it’s a regular letter that you need to send, then sending it as soon as possible may mean you’re less likely to suffer. For example, if you have a loved one with a birthday on one of those affected days, it is probably worth simply sending it early. Martyn James notes that while Royal Mail does offer compensation to those suffering from a poor delivery service, it only applies in certain sets of circumstances.
Widespread action
This is the sixth strike for postal workers, and comes after a summer of unrest which saw rail workers and criminal barristers walk out amid disputes with their employers. Royal Mail workers are holding the first of 19 strikes in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. If you have an important piece of post that you either need to send or receive, then you do have some limited options which can reduce the chances of the postal workers strike impacting you. In October 2022, Royal Mail announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs by next August, blaming ongoing strike action and rising losses at the business. They add, “We’ll be doing what we can to keep services running, but we are sorry this planned strike action is likely to cause you some disruption.”
One of the inevitable results of the strike is that you will not receive the post they are expecting on the days affected by the industrial action. Due to the planned strike action, Royal Mail has also bought forward its last posting dates for Christmas, which are much earlier than usual this year. In May 2022, Royal Mail announced they had turned a profit of £758m that business year. Although this was a £56m rise from the year before, it was below analysts’ average forecast of £771m and the company has announced it is losing £1m a day. The CWU has accused Royal Mail of planning structural change, which it has said will see cuts to workers’ sick pay, delayed arrival of post by three hours and inferior terms for new employees.
No post will be delivered on Black Friday or Cyber Monday
Royal Mail strikes will make sending and receiving letters and parcels through the post less reliable in the run-up to Christmas. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a Royal Mail postal worker is around £25,000. In 2020, the Daily Express reported that postal worker salaries at Royal Mail can range from £13,007 – £34,582, and that the hourly rate is thought to be between £10 and £11.
Royal Mail strikes: When are postal workers walking out again?
This means major disruption to postal services is inevitable on the full strike dates, with “some disruption” likely on the days of partial action. Industrial action will threaten the job security of postal workers, said Royal Mail, calling on the leaders of CWU to cancel the walk-out and accept invitations for talks. General Secretary Mr Ward said the changes could lead to the “destruction of the special relationship that postal workers and the public have in every community in the UK”.
The union has demanded that Royal Mail increases wages to an amount that “covers the current cost of living”. Union bosses the action was “for a proper pay rise” and said the strikes would be the biggest this summer. Royal Mail is moving from its traditional business of delivering letters – which is no longer profitable – to the fast-growing world of parcel deliveries, driven by the increasing popularity of online shopping. Speaking on Saturday, CWU general secretary Dave Ward said the union will be offering Royal Mail a way to get back into “serious talks”, offering the chance to suspend industrial action if progress is made. Any items posted in postboxes or Post Offices the day before, during or following strike dates are likely to be subject to delays. Talks between the two sides were held on Thursday but there was no sign progress and the union is planning to step up industrial action in the coming weeks.
More recently, Royal Mail has offered a pay deal which it says is worth up to 9% over 18 months. In the most recent strike ballot, 95.9% of the CWU members who voted were in favour of strike action, with a turnout of 77.3% – a result which the CWU says is the biggest ever return in a major national strike ballot. The union accuses Royal Mail of planning structural change which would effectively see employees in secure, well-paid jobs turned into a “casualised, financially precarious workforce overnight”. The company says it is losing about £1m a day, and cannot afford to give its workers a higher pay rise.
Royal Mail’s latest adjusted operating profit for the year to March was £416m, up from £344m the year before. “The CWU’s message to Royal Mail’s leadership is simple – there will be serious disruption until you get real on pay,” he added. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said workers would walk out on 26 and 31 August and 8 and 9 September. Shares were sold to financial institutions and private individuals, with 10% reserved for Royal Mail employees.
The planned 19 days of industrial action include Black Friday week and Cyber Monday, as well as 13, 20, and 25 October, and 28 November. As per the Trade Union Act in 2016, the result of a ballot is only valid for six months, which mean the CWU will have to re-ballot members if it wants to continue strike action past August 2023. Around 5,000 members of the TSSA union that represents transport staff, have said they will strike on 26 and 27 September in an ongoing dispute over their pay and conditions. But Royal Mail’s chief executive Simon Thompson told the BBC that despite an increase in business during the pandemic, the company was now losing £1m a day. Workers on the railways and at airports are also in pay disputes with employers, with train drivers set to strike on Saturday.
Another example of a workforce being led, lemming-like, over the edge of an employment cliffs by their trade union’s dinasaur leader in ANOTHER POLITICALLY MOTIVATED STRIKE designed to bash the Tories. Britain has been hit by a wave of strikes in the past year, with rail employees, barristers and refuse workers having already walked out over pay and conditions amid a cost-of-living crisis. Unite and Unison, the UK’s largest unions have said they will seek to co-ordinate strike action this autumn to try to secure better pay deals.
Fears are growing that teachers, nurses and other NHS workers could add to the strike action after being balloted by their unions over underinflation pay rises. “The public and businesses also face the end of daily deliveries and destruction of the special relationship that postal workers and the public have in every community in the UK. Royal Mail said it has offered workers a 5.5% pay deal, comprising 2%, paid in June and backdated to April 2022, with a further 1.5% to be paid from the date upon which reforms are implemented. Royal Mail said it wanted to discuss varying working hours and days with the union.
They work for nine train companies – including TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains, who voted for strike action last week – and for Network Rail. The move comes as Royal Mail said the union had rejected a pay rise offer “worth up to 5.5%” after three months of talks. Royal Mail mounted picket lines outside delivery and sorting offices again on Saturday in a continuing dispute over pay and conditions. Royal Mail workers are to hold hanging man candle a further 19 strikes in October and November in a deteriorating and long-running dispute over pay and conditions. It comes as Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the strikers, had rejected a pay rise offer “worth up to 5.5%” after three months of talks. It said plans by the postal service include cutting workers’ sick pay, delaying arrival of post by three hours and inferior terms for new employees.
The trade union Aslef has also announced a strike by train drivers at 12 train companies, on Thursday 15th September over pay. Royal Mail has reported a £1bn loss, with bosses blaming strike action by workers and a failure to increase productivity for its poor performance during a year in which it cut 10,000 jobs. But while there have been calls for pay rises, there are concerns that higher wages to cope with the current cost of living could fuel further inflation. The company also called for further talks with the union to avert the strikes, but said they “must be about both change and pay”.