Royal Mail workers call off strike

by Ben Bold, Brand Republic 10-Aug-07, 12:05

LONDON - Royal Mail workers have suspended today's planned strike action following a meeting between its top executives and representatives of the Communications Workers' Union.

The agreement is the first sign that the deadlock, over Royal Mail's rejected offer of a 2.5% pay rise and plans to modernise, could end.

At the meeting, which was attended by Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton and chief executive Adam Crozier, it was decided that both parties should commit to talks, which will be monitored by the Trade Union Council, on all issues. They will reach an agreement by September 4.

The agreement also stipulated that all talks will be confidential with no media or internal briefings, unless jointly agreed. During the period Royal Mail agreed not to take any executive actions and the CWU said it would suspend all industrial action.

Last month, Royal Mail workers said they would escalate industrial action by calling stoppages that would last longer than the 24-hour periods they had used previously.

The CWU decided on the move after becoming frustrated by the lack of "progressive discussions" with Royal Mail. It elected for a two-week programme of rolling action by departments, starting on July 25. They have been ongoing since and a wave of strike action was due to commence from 7pm this evening.

Yesterday's agreement was signed by Leighton, Crozier, the CWU's general secretary Billy Hayes and its deputy general secretary Dave Ward.

Strike action was called after the union rejected Royal Mail's 2.5% pay rise offer and its plans to modernise, which the union views as leading to unacceptable job losses of up to 40,000 positions.