Royal Mail pay offer accepted by Communication Workers Union leaders

Postal workers are being recommended to accept a new pay deal that would end the long-running dispute with the Royal Mail.

If members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) accept a 10% pay rise over three years it will signal an end to the row over jobs and conditions which led to a series of walkouts last year.

Union members will be balloted on the offer in the coming weeks.

Both the Royal Mail and the CWU said it was a "good" deal.

Royal Mail said the agreement included a 10% salary increase and a one-off lump sum of £500. This includes a previous 2% pay rise from April 2022, a consolidated 6% pay rise from April 2023 and a 2% increase next April.

Royal Mail's parent company, International Distributions Services, said if the deal was approved by the CWU membership it would represent a "good outcome for customers, employees and shareholders".

Dave Ward, the general secretary of the CWU, said: ''We are completely satisfied that if people look at this agreement in the context of the magnitude of this dispute they will see this as a good agreement that will stand the test of time.''

The agreement also includes a commitment to no compulsory redundancies and covers later start times, changes to sick pay, attendance standards, ill health retirement and revised contracts for new starters.

New employees will also be required to regularly work on Sundays.

This agreement could bring to an end one of the most bad-tempered of industrial disputes. It was always about so much more than money, which is why it was so difficult to solve.

Royal Mail argued that without a dramatic modernisation programme the business would go bust. The postal workers saw that modernisation as a threat to their way of life.

Striking workers each lost on average £1,800 over 18 strike days. Someone I spoke to on the picket line said the financial hit was worth it because this was "their last stand".

It is telling that the head of the CWU, Dave Ward, is sounding so positive about the agreement - it suggests he will really sell it to his members.

Around 115,000 CWU members working for Royal Mail have been in dispute over pay since the spring of 2022. The CWU said the offer made last year was not enough, with workers being squeezed by inflation and the cost of living crisis.

The union also objected to proposed changes to working conditions.

Royal Mail workers staged a series of walkouts last year, including in the lead-up to Christmas.

Earlier this month, Royal Mail said a return to industrial action could result in the postal service going into administration.

It said the strikes had cost the company £200m in lost business and in covering striking staff.