post office - ballot on pay
WORKERS, SEPTEMBER 2003 ISSUE
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is balloting its members after the Post Office management effectively collapsed the talks by refusing to discuss union proposals or move above the current offer of 4.5% over 18 months, paid in two stages. As the CWU points out, this is only worth 3% on an annual basis, and is below both the current rate of inflation - 3.1% - and the going rate in the public sector, calculated at 3.5%.
The average Post Office worker earns £262 a week with basic pay rates 40% below the British average. In comparison, pay and perks for Royal Mail's senior executives have rocketed by 320% in the past two years, with chief executive Crozier earning £500,000 a year or £9,582 a week.
The CWU has rejected an offer of 14.5% because the extra money was to be tied to the completion of all major change programmes both at local and at national levels.
Key changes would be the loss of up to 30,000 jobs and attacks on the national pay bargaining structure.