Royal Mail agrees upon pay deal with postal workers’ union
Royal Mail has agreed to a pay deal with the postal workers’ union to end a long-running and bitter dispute that led to the first national strikes since its privatisation a decade ago.
The company said it had reached a deal after talks with the Communication Workers Union, which represents about 112,000 postal workers.
Royal Mail and union leaders reached an agreement in principle last weekend after 11 months of negotiations in the dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
That deal has now been ratified by the union’s executive committee, and will be put to a ballot of the union’s membership with a recommendation to approve. The ballot is expected in the coming weeks.
The agreement includes a 10% salary increase and a one-off lump sum of £500 for all CWU-grade employees in Royal Mail and Parcelforce, regardless of union membership – about 120,000 workers.
This is broken down into a previous 2% pay rise from 1 April 2022; a 6% pay rise from 1 April 2023 and a 2% pay rise from 1 April 2024. The one-off payment of £500 is equivalent to 2% of pay and pro-rated for part-time staff.
The two sides have also agreed on a profit-share agreement: assuming Royal Mail makes an adjusted operating profit in any financial year up to 2024-25, a fifth of those profits will be handed out as a one-off payment to employees, to be paid after publication of the company’s accounts.
The company said: “Royal Mail is currently materially loss making. This agreement is an important step forward in the turnaround of Royal Mail and, if approved by the CWU membership, represents a good outcome for customers, employees and shareholders.”
The union tweeted: “We have reached an agreement with Royal Mail Group. They came for the postal workers but we are still
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