Unions and Royal Mail reach deal over 'wildcat' dispute

The threat of further unofficial strike action by postal workers across the country has been averted for the time being as union representatives and managers at Royal Mail have reached a deal at the conciliation service ACAS.

The Communication Workers' Union and Royal Mail issued a joint statement early this morning, saying that a deal had been arrived at which would allow union members currently on unofficial action to return to work.

However, as the strikes were never endorsed by ballot, there remains a small possibility that postal workers could return to the picket lines in spite of union recommendations.

According to the joint statement, all staff currently on unofficial industrial action will resume work immediately or on the next available shift.

The statement added: "Managers and employees will co-operate fully together to ensure that service to the customer is returned to normal as soon as possible. All mail will be handled regardless of where it is posted or by whom it has been processed or distributed.

"Managers will ensure employees have a fair and manageable workload on a daily basis and will continue to be responsible for the allocation of overtime. Normal levels of overtime and scheduled attendance will be provided for all employees in all functions/units and will be advertised or allocated locally in the normal way."

The unofficial wildcat strikes – which involved around 25,000 workers at their height – began in Southall, Greenford and Dartford sorting offices in London and quickly spread to 15 of 73 UK-wide postal centres. As the dispute continued, all of London's letterboxes were blocked up to prevent more letters adding to the tens of millions backing up the delivery system every day.

According to the main points of the deal, Royal Mail have confirmed there will be no conduct cases progressed against any employee for taking or encouraging unofficial industrial action. Any serious cases that may emerge involving threatening behaviour by either side will be dealt with in accordance with existing procedures, the statement said.

The Royal Mail has also accepted that the CWU did not instigate unofficial industrial action, and they pledged not to make any claims against the Union for unofficial action to-date.

A CWU statement added: "As a consequence of this resolution and the previous commitment attained, the Union now has a firm platform to finalise a National Agreement at ACAS over pay, major change and London Weighting. National negotiations on these issues will now resume on Tuesday 4th November."

(gmcg)