Royal Mail’s main trade union is to ballot more than 100,000 postal workers over possible strike action after accusing the company of breaching the “spirit and intent” of a labour agreement.
The Communication Workers Union has set out plans to consult its members in a dispute it said relates to issues including employment terms and conditions and job security.
The move marks a dramatic deterioration of industrial relations at Britain’s privatised postal service, which averted nationwide walkouts last year in a conflict sparked by the planned closure of a retirement fund.
A ballot of CWU members is scheduled to open on 24 September, with the result due on 8 October. It raises the possibility of serious disruption in the run-up to the peak season ahead of Christmas, a crucial time for the postal business.
Union officials however left the door open to a peaceful reconciliation, saying that the timetable allowed “a period of weeks for further dialogue/external mediation”.
Royal Mail is one of the UK’s largest private sector employers but still has a duty to deliver mail six days a week anywhere in the country at the same price.
The CWU said the FTSE 250 group was not honouring a wide-ranging deal signed last year that included pay rises, a pledge to reduce working hours and new pension proposals.
In a letter to members, the CWU said it believed Royal Mail’s management was “not working within the spirit and intent of our national agreements” and was “following [its] own agenda that will have long-term detrimental effects on our members’ terms and conditions of employment, job security and the future of [Royal Mail Group] as a whole”.
Royal Mail was not immediately available for comment. The company has previously said it was abiding by the 2018 agreement.