8.6 per cent pay offer 'laden with conditions' rejected by Royal Mail union

Of considerable interest to many of those receiving employment law advice from Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) will be the recent news of the rejection of an 8.6 per cent pay offer by the representatives of more than 100,000 Royal Mail workers, the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), on account of its being "misleading and unacceptable".

The government is preparing for the sale of Royal Mail, so the three year deal comes on the backdrop of looming privatisation. The offer includes assurances of terms and conditions for current employees remaining unchanged for at least a three year period, while the Royal Mail Pension Plan has also been promised to remain open for existing members. Also set out in the offer is a new model for the Royal Mail and CWU working relationship.

However, according to CWU, a vote of postal workers had saw 99 per cent reject what it described as "a proposal laden with strings that will increase the uncertainty of their future" in favour of an above-inflation pay rise.

Concerns were voiced by union representatives about whether workers' terms and conditions would still be protected after a sale. They described the offer's pledges as "neither extensive enough, explicit enough nor adequate in their longevity. Neither are they legally enforceable".

With CWU negotiators adding that there was a failure in the present settlement to address claims for improved overtime rates and new bonus arrangements, they said that a higher, more straightforward deal would be sought. The deal also included links back to previously rejected pension proposals and similarly unwanted "inflation reopener clauses".

In a response that will interest many firms in comparable conflicts receiving HR advice, Deputy general secretary at the union, Dave Ward, said that the offer gave postal workers less, rather than more security, and that "with privatisation looming, the protections Royal Mail have put on offer are not worth the paper they're written on."

"Only a year ago the government and [Royal Mail chief executive] Moya Greene promised postal workers that their pensions were secure - now they have reneged on their promise and postal workers' pensions are again under attack.”

HR support clients will be interested to read Ward's words that if the union's desired assurances over its members' futures were not forthcoming, it was "inevitable" that there would be industrial conflict.

Greene, meanwhile, described the offer as "a good deal – good for Royal Mail and good for our people", adding that it represented "Royal Mail’s commitment to a long-term engagement strategy with the CWU and with our people.

"We have already built a stronger Royal Mail together through closer co-operation and trust in recent years. We are now offering a new long-term agreement with the CWU and our employees."

Organisations in a similar situation to Royal Mail are entitled to contact Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) about how they can handle alterations to their current employment documentation in a manner entirely in compliance with current employment law.

Editor’s Note: Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.