POST OFFICE “PUTS HEAD IN SAND” AND PRETENDS MASS POSTAL DISRUPTION WILL GO AWAY
Wednesday 27th April 2022
Post Offices across the country will face massive disruption unless bosses stop engaging in “power play” with their workers’ wages, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has warned.
The union – which represents Post Office staff – states “workers won’t accept a collapse in their living standards’, as hundreds of employees look set to strike next Tuesday (3rd May) against a real-terms pay cut.
Post Office management are insisting on a pay freeze for 2021-22, despite the company generating a profit for the last two years during the pandemic from the efforts of their key worker employees.
Insultingly, Post Office has offered just a 2% pay increase – plus a £250 one-off payment (pro-rata for part-timers) for 2022-23.
Post Office management have claimed that they are following government policy on public sector pay. However, they have simultaneously claimed that the decision to impose a pay freeze was theirs to make.
CWU members considered the pay freeze a slap in the face, and voted by 97.3% on a 70.2% turnout to take strike action.
Furthermore, Post Office Postal Assistants – a significant sector of the workforce – currently earn less than £24,000 per year.
If management strictly followed government policy, these workers would have received a wage increase of at least £250, yet they have not.
Despite repeated attempts by the Union to instigate meaningful negotiations since the Yes vote was declared on March 28th, Post Office management has refused to get around the bargaining table.
CWU Assistant Secretary Andy Furey said: “Post Office management are insisting they are simply following government policy on public sector pay policy.
“But they have repeatedly contradicted themselves, and have also said that it’s their decision to impose a pay freeze.
“We know Post Office has turned over huge profits in these past few years – management can afford to provide our members with a reasonable pay increase if they wanted.
“This is not an issue of affordability. This is about power play from a management that is needlessly antagonising its key worker employees. The attitude of Post Office needs to be viewed in the context of inflation rising by at least 9% already this year.
“Our members don’t appreciate being taken for fools, which is why they have voted in massive numbers for strike action.
“Post Office can’t put their heads in the sand. This dispute won’t go away, and our members are united – they won’t accept a collapse in their living standards.
“To avoid more disruption to services this year, the CWU urges Post Office to get round the bargaining table and thrash out a settlement with us that treats our key worker heroes with the respect they deserve.”
ENDS
For more information, please contact CWU Press Officer Marcus Barnett on 07812590450 or mbarnett@cwu.org