Workers who deliver cash to post offices are set to strike next week in a dispute over pay and jobs.
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) who collect and distribute cash across the 11,500 branch network will walk out for 24 hours on Friday 12 December.
Talks took place at Acas, the conciliation body, this week and will continue on Monday in a bid to avert the industrial action.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said he hoped there would be a breakthrough to avoid strike action but that the onus was on the Post Office to make that happen.
He said the company’s plan to cut 28% of jobs from the administrative and supply chain staff was unacceptable.
“Post Office management is out of touch with its staff and customers if it thinks it would be able to continue its current service levels with such a significant loss. These threats of compulsory redundancies are deplorable,” Ward said.
Keith Rann, the head of supply chain at the Post Office, said management was “extremely disappointed” by the CWU’s misguided call for strike action before further talks on Monday.
“We have made a fair and affordable pay offer of over 5% over three years. We remain committed to resolving this dispute and urge the CWU to reconsider their call for this pointless strike action,” he said.
The government urged the union and management to seek a resolution through talks. A Business Department spokesman said: “If the proposed action does go ahead, the Post Office has assured government that it has contingency arrangements in place to minimise any disruption of vital Post Office services to customers.”
This week the CWU called for a judicial review of Ofcom, the postal and media regulator, following its decision not impose new conditions on Royal Mail’s direct-delivery competitors.
The company has claimed that a failure to do so would threaten its universal service obligation (USO) under which it is obliged to deliver letters posted anywhere in Britain for the same price.
The CWU claimed that Ofcom had failed to fulfil its statutory duty to protect the USO, adding that the regulator was “part of the problem, not the solution”.
The union warned that allowing Royal Mail’s competitors to cherry-pick lucrative urban delivery routes damaged the viability of the USO.
Ward said it expected the company to support the union’s call to defend postal workers.
“In criticising Royal Mail’s efficiency, Ofcom is preparing the ground for postal workers’ terms and conditions and pay to be dragged down to the level of its competitors.”
Last week Nick Wells, the chief executive of Whistl – the rebranded TNT Post – told MPs that Royal Mail needed to modernise, improve efficiency and change its labour relations policy.
Wells admitted that some Whistl workers were on zero-hours contracts.
The CWU has called on Royal Mail’s competitors to publish employees’ pay and conditions for transparency across the industry.
