Royal Mail staff call off planned strike action

Planned strikes by Royal Mail workers successful the adjacent 2 weeks person been called disconnected aft a situation by the firm.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are progressive successful a quality implicit wage and conditions.

The CWU said it had decided to retreat concern enactment notices for the adjacent fortnight pursuing a ineligible missive from Royal Mail.

A bid of strikes person taken spot successful caller weeks and enactment volition present resume connected Saturday 12 November.

CWU wide caput Dave Ward said: "We recognise the heavy vexation felt by galore members implicit this decision."

The onslaught enactment involves much than 115,000 workers, the national said.

The CWU has been locked successful a long-running quality with the institution astir wage increases keeping up with the soaring outgo of surviving and moving practices.

The median wage astatine Royal Mail is £32,465 a year, with the mean wage for a postal transportation idiosyncratic little than that astatine £25,777.

Royal Mail has blamed onslaught enactment for rising losses and occupation cuts, arsenic good arsenic little volumes of parcels being posted.

"The information remains that the existent absorption of Royal Mail doesn't payment the company, the assemblage oregon the country," Mr Ward added.

"We inactive request to unafraid a decent aboriginal of this industry, and nary attempts to onslaught our national and our members volition alteration our determination successful warring for that."

Royal Mail confirmed that the CWU had withdrawn planned onslaught enactment primitively planned for 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 November.

"The CWU has withdrawn onslaught enactment pursuing Royal Mail penning to CWU to item galore worldly concerns with the ceremonial notification of planned rolling onslaught action," a spokesperson said.

The institution and the CWU are owed to be scheduled talks astatine the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) connected Monday.

"We volition proceed to bash each we tin to support business, companies and the state connected," the Royal Mail spokesperson added.

Royal Mail said onslaught enactment outgo the concern £70m during the archetypal fractional of its fiscal year, starring to an operating nonaccomplishment of £219m, compared to a £235m nett past year.

It has been attempting to marque the institution a "parcels-led" concern arsenic the fig of letters being sent done the station declines and much radical store online.