CWU recommends deal with Royal Mail on pay and job protection

CWU has today (Monday) announced it has reached a landmark agreement with Royal Mail that gives workers legal protections on their terms and conditions, increases pay over three years by 9.06%, sets out improved industrial stability and safeguards pensions. 

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: “The agreement breaks new ground in the UK by incorporating extensive legally binding protections for employees alongside a commitment to improve industrial stability. The legal protections for Royal Mail employees come hard on the heels of the privatisation of the company and are unprecedented in delivering the strongest protections for employees. This is a good deal for the company and customers as well as for employees, but investors should be clear that this agreement commits them to growth and there will be no tolerance to a race to the bottom on services and jobs.”

The agreement includes a pay deal for three years that amounts to a 9.06% compound increase over the three years to 2016.  This is broken down as:

•   April 2013-14                      3% increase on pay and overtime rates backdated to April 1st 2013 (against a 2.9% RPI)
• April 2014-15                      3% increase on pay and overtime rates
• April 2015-16                      2.8% increase on pay and overtime rates subject to a review if RPI is 0.5% higher or lower. 
• A one-off pensionable lump sum of £200 paid before Christmas 2013. 

The legal protections agreed for employees continue to a first review in January 2019 and include:

 The employer will not outsource, sell or transfer any part of its business.

• The employer will remain an end-to-end service provider and will not franchise out any part of its business or make any employee self-employed.
• The employer will not engage any new employee on inferior terms and conditions (no two-tier workforce).
• The collectively agreed terms and conditions of employees will not be worsened in any respect or changed unless amended by agreement.
• The over-riding objective will be for the employer to deliver all future change without recourse to compulsory redundancy. 
• The employment model will remain predominantly full time and the agreed resourcing mix will be monitored on a quarterly basis.

The agreement also includes a strategy to grow parcels, retain letters and sustain and grow the USO.  There will be improved efficiency coupled with incentive arrangements for employees, actions to deliver cultural change and a national review of workloads and resourcing.  

It has also been agreed that both parties will create industrial stability with a re-launch of industrial relations arrangements and the introduction of mediation procedures alongside new governance arrangements.

The agreement will be placed before CWU members for acceptance in January 2014 in a single member postal ballot.