Sole traders to be hit by postal strike

[Geezer]

http://www.brookson.co.uk/news-and-pres ... trike.aspx

21 September 2009

Small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) including sole traders and limited companies will be impacted by the postal strike, a business expert has warned.

The comments from GrowthBusiness.co.uk followed the announcement from the Communication Workers Union that it was balloting postal workers to decide on potential strike action.

Nick Britton, editor at GrowthBusiness.co.uk said: "[SMEs] are already suffering major disruption because of postal strikes. A nationwide walk-out would put critical strain on tens of thousands of companies which are already labouring under tough trading conditions and cash flow problems.

"Unfortunately, it looks as though businesses are going to hear a lot more of that old excuse for late payment, 'the cheque's in the post'."

The CWU has sent out strike papers to all of the 121,000 postal workers employed by Royal Mail with a decision due to be announced on October 8th or 9th.

A recent survey from the Forum of Private Business showed that late payment and the subsequent cash flow problems it caused were one of the main concerns for SMEs.