Workers at Royal Mail are staging their latest 48-hour strike as the dispute continues with postal bosses over pay and conditions.
The latest strike comes after workers downed tools on Thursday and Friday last week (November 24 and 25).
Further strikes are planned in December, with workers set walk out on December 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24.
The strikes, which are seeing some 115,000 people stop working, are causing disruption to deliveries all across the country. Royal Mail is unable to deliver first and second class letters on strike days, but aims to deliver as many parcels and letters marked for Special Delivery as it can.
The strikes come after Royal Mail rebuffed demands from the Communication Workers Union [CWU] for a pay rise in line with inflation. Inflation currently stands at 11.1 per cent.
The CWU is also voicing opposition to conditions such as the abolishing of certain allowances and making Sunday working compulsory.
Royal Mail has made a pay rise offer which amounts to a nine per cent hike over 18 months, which it says is its “best and final offer.” It adds that it has also promised a profit-sharing scheme to workers and a more generous redundancy package for those who leave.
However, Royal Mail says that there are no talks currently taking place with the CWU.
Dave Ward, the CWU’s general secretary, said that the nine per cent offer was a “devastating blow” to postal workers.
Ward said: “Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect.”
He urged Royal Mail to engage with the union so that postal workers could “get on with serving” their communities.
Royal Mail’s offer comes as it is struggling with excessive losses. It is reported to be losing around a million pounds per day as it transitions its business to focusing on parcel deliveries rather than letters.
Royal Mail says that the strikes have added some £100 million to its losses this year and has already announced plans to reduce its headcount by 10,000.
Royal Mail made a request to ministers earlier in November to be able to stop delivering letters on Saturdays, after reporting losses for the first half of 2022. The business is also looking to transition to delivering letters from Monday to Friday only, with parcel services continuing to run throughout the week.
