POSTIES in Colchester will be put to the vote on strike action unless bosses enter talks with union chiefs at national level.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) plans to hold ballots over a rule change which means employees can be ordered to keep working once their rounds are finished.
In the past, staff could go home if they managed to complete their deliveries before their shift was over.CWU local organiser Kevan Pugh wrote: We are quite keen to get trials under way to test out new delivery spans and delivery methods, but Royal Mail is hell bent on pushing forward. We have good relationships with management at Colchester and have worked with them to reduce the payroll by leaving vacancies unfilled
But under a deal agreed with unions in 2007 and enforced in Colchester for the first time yesterday, managers can now send out early-returners to post mail left by absent colleagues.
CWU local organiser Kevan Pugh said a strike was now being considered as the goalposts had moved since 2007, when sizes of rounds had increased due to 50 staff cuts.
He said the system agreed two years ago was no longer fair, as the smaller workforce would end up pounding the pavements for more than the three-and-a-half hours per shift, the length of time unions had agreed was acceptable. Unless bosses negotiated a change to the round time with the national CWU, he said he would ask members to vote on walkouts.
Mr Pugh said: “We are quite keen to get trials under way to test out new delivery spans and delivery methods, but Royal Mail is hell bent on pushing forward. We have good relationships with management at Colchester and have worked with them to reduce the payroll by leaving vacancies unfilled.
“Now people are angry because they feel we are being made to pay the penalty for that by being burdened with too much work.”
Mr Pugh said, assuming strike action was backed, it was likely he would call a half-day walkout on a Saturday, followed up with a full day the following Monday.
No CWU-backed action would take place for several weeks, as the proper legal procedures would have to be followed. Royal Mail spokesman James Taylor said: “All we are asking is people work their full shifts.”