Staff at the Royal Mail are planning to strike over concerns that their pay rate will be reduced following the service’s privatisation. The government plans to privatise the service in the coming months in order to raise funds and reduce spending.
The workers, who belong to the Communication Workers Union, claim that protests against the government are ‘inevitable’ unless a compromise can be reached on the long-term pay rates of Royal Mail workers.
The protest action will also be targeted at the government’s lack of communication with Royal Mail workers regarding pensions, job stability, and any changes to Royal Mail management following the sale of the service.
Analysts believe that large-scale industrial action would be a serious challenge for the government, which plans to sell the service in the coming months. Staff will get upwards of £2,000 each in free shares as the Royal Mail service is privatised.
Union workers have asked the Royal Mail to negotiate with the government prior to a potential sale. Members of the CWU believe that Royal Mail workers are entitled to ‘decent pay increases’ as part of the service’s privatisation.
Royal Mail workers were offered a small pay increase recently, which was rejected by the CWU as being ‘below inflation.’ The union claims that changes in the work of many Royal Mail staff should come with a similar increase in compensation.
The government has rejected claims that the pay offer was below inflation, claiming that CWU workers were offered a ‘generous pay offer’ of 8.6 percent during the next three years. The pay increase is far above the standard rate for public sector staff.
Teachers and nursing staff, for example, have had their pay increases capped at just one percent annually due to budget cuts. The Department of Business remarked that plans to strike will ‘not alter the government’s decision to sell shared in Royal Mail.’
