About 115,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) were balloted and voted 96.7% in favour of strikes, on a turnout of 77%. The result of the ballot was announced by the union’s general secretary, Dave Ward, and its deputy general secretary, Terry Pullinger, at the York Barbican, where about 300 CWU members were gathered. The union has said the strikes are partly about the “Uberisation” of the postal service, including “widespread changes… introducing Uber-style owner-drivers, mail centre closures and changes to Sunday working”.

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. After talks between the two sides ended, Royal Mail announced it would give CWU members a 2% pay increase backdated to 1 April, and offered a further a 3.5% – subject to further talks and agreements – totalling a 5.5% rise. “It is proof that postal workers will not accept their livelihoods being destroyed so that a few at the top can generate serious profits at their expense.” https://www.forex-world.net/ “The CWU leadership’s choice of damaging strike action over resolution is weakening the financial position of the company and threatening the job security of our postmen and women. To applause from members, Ward said Royal Mail workers “need to see a pay rise now that reflects … that they have turned the fortunes of the company around, and the cost of living crisis”. Ward said the union would give the company “another opportunity to come back to the negotiating table” but if a deal could not be reached, the CWU would notify Royal Mail of industrial action.

On strike days it will deliver as many Special Delivery and Tracked 24 parcels as possible, it said. Letters will not be delivered on strike days and some parcels will be delayed, Royal Mail warned. 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. 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. 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.”

Royal Mail usually aims to deliver first class post the next working day and second class post within two to three working days. The long-running dispute over pay and conditions has resulted in the launch of a 24-hour strike on Thursday. This is in addition to the remaining 18 days of industrial action planned for the coming weeks. If a first or second class letter or parcel has not been delivered within 10 days of its due date, you https://www.currency-trading.org/ might be entitled to compensation. For tracked deliveries, a claim can be made seven days after the due date.Either the sender or the recipient can make a claim, but only one party will receive compensation. Dissatisfaction with pay and working conditions is sweeping across the public sector, resulting in train strikes and London bus strikes on the transport network, and more recently there have been school strikes planned too.

1. Royal Mail said it had awarded workers a non-conditional 2% pay increase backdated to 1 April, and told the CWU that a further 3.5% was available, subject to agreement on a series of changes and a new “above and beyond” bonus.
2. He described the plans as an “asset-stripping business plan” that will lead to the break-up of the company.
3. “Despite nearly three months of talks, the CWU have not engaged in any meaningful discussion on the changes we need to make to adapt.
4. Royal Mail workers voted for strike action because of a dispute over pay brought about by the cost of living crisis, as inflation in the UK exceeds 10%.

Thousands of Royal Mail workers have voted to strike in a dispute over pay in what could be the biggest industrial action of the summer. “Instead of working with us to agree on changes required to fund that offer and get pay into our posties’ pockets, the CWU has announced plans to ballot in the New Year for further strike action.” 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”.

This is because Parcelforce is owned by Royal Mail, so some CWU members who collect, sort and deliver parcels for Parcelforce will be striking. 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. “We call on the CWU leaders to cancel their planned strike action and accept our invitation to enter talks through Acas without further delay.

What do people have to say about the postal strike?

General Secretary Dave Ward said workers faced the “biggest ever assault” on jobs, terms and conditions “in the history of Royal Mail”. 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. The Royal Mail industrial action will span over 19 days in the run-up to the busy Christmas period and will cover peak periods such as Black Friday on 25 November and Cyber Monday on 28 November. Picket lines have been mounted outside Royal Mail offices on the sixth day of action in recent months.

Inflation, the rate at which prices rise, is at a 40-year high of 10.1% and expected to surpass 13% later this year. Parenting advice, hot topics, best buys and family finance tips delivered straight to your inbox. The company has said it will need to split if it cannot achieve “significant operational change.” The Postal Services Act allowed private buyers to own up to 90% of Royal Mail, with staff entitled to 10% of the company’s shares.

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Chairman Keith Williams has said that the firm is losing £1m a day as parcel volumes fall and efforts to modernise the business stall. The company is encouraging https://www.investorynews.com/ people to post items as early as possible to avoid disruption. Letters will not be delivered and some parcels will be delayed, the Royal Mail has warned.

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”. The card company Moonpig has advised customers to order early where possible but said its gifts and flowers use different delivery services so would be unaffected by the strikes. 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.

The union representing the workers is demanding a pay rise that more closely reflects the current rate of inflation. 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.

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. “Royal Mail is losing £1m a day and must change faster in response to changing customer demands. He added that the vote for strike action was “also a vote of no confidence in Royal Mail’s CEO and board, who should seriously consider their futures” at the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday. Along with the rail industrial action on Tuesday and Wednesday, there will also be train strikes on Friday and Saturday.

No letters will be delivered during strike days, said Royal Mail, but as many special delivery and Tracked24 parcels as possible would be delivered. Royal Mail workers voted for strike action because of a dispute over pay brought about by the cost of living crisis, as inflation in the UK exceeds 10%. “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. To avoid delayed or lost documents or items in the coming months, it will be best to avoid sending post using Royal Mail around the dates of the walk out. But if important letters and parcels cannot wait, there are alternatives, but they will be more expensive.Many courier companies now offer a “postable” service for letters and small parcels which can fit through a letterbox. Evri, formerly Hermes, offers next day delivery on items weighing less than 1kg for £3.29 and standard delivery for £2.69.In London, same-day courier service City Sprint will deliver an A4 document via bike from £6.50.

What will happen during the Royal Mail strike?

And on Friday, rail workers, buses, baggage handlers, highway workers and driving examiners will walk out. On Tuesday, a separate set of figures from the ONS revealed that the gap between wage growth in the public and private sector is near a record high. However, because she relies “so heavily on the post” to get products from suppliers and to send her art to customers, she says it “has made my life very hard this Christmas season”. Lucy Bryant, who runs her small business Haus of Lucy from Brighton, says she supports the strikers as “everyone has a right to fair pay”. It also said it would prioritise the delivery of Covid-19 test kits and medical prescriptions. In April 2012, Post Office Ltd became independent of the postal service Royal Mail Group as part of the Postal Services Act 2011.

Royal Mail staff vote to strike in pay dispute

The union has called for Royal Mail to increase wages to an amount that “covers the current cost of living”. He described the plans as an “asset-stripping business plan” that will lead to the break-up of the company. Ricky McAulay, operations director at Royal Mail, said the CWU has failed to engage in “any meaningful discussion” after months of talks. “If you are waiting on a delivery from a retailer, reach out to them directly rather than Royal Mail – it is the retailer who is responsible for getting your parcel to you.”

Royal Mail said this was its its “best and final offer”, and accused the union of “holding Christmas to ransom”.