Postal strike may cost Government £100m

[Stormproof]

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The Government risks losing nearly £100 million in revenues if a national postal strike goes ahead next week, which looked increasingly certain last night.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that if industrial action begins as expected on or after October 22 — days before an October 31 filing deadline for tax returns — the Government will be forced to consider waiving a £100 penalty for nearly one million expected late returns.

HMRC said that about 9.2 million people were expected to file tax returns by post this autumn. Of these, 10 per cent, or 920,000 people, will file late, incurring fines that will raise about £92 million for the public purse.

A spokesman said that in the event of a strike, late returns in theory would receive a fine, but that claimants could appeal for it to be dropped.

He said that the HMRC would look favourably on such appeals: “There is an existing provision for this ... If you post it on October 25 and there is a strike, then that will have been done in good time so your penalty will be reduced to nil.”

Meanwhile, Royal Mail has thrown down the gauntlet to unions, demanding an immediate end to the threat of strike action and dismissing their latest offer as a “deplorable and blatant attack on customers and the future of the postal service”.

In an uncompromising letter to the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), Mark Higson, managing director of Royal Mail, appeared to scotch hope of a last-minute deal, paving the way for a national walkout by more than 120,000 postal workers as early as next Thursday.

Mr Higson said that a “peace offer” received yesterday from Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, was “in reality a series of fresh demands against Royal Mail”. Mr Higson said: “If they are genuinely interested in peace, I challenge them now to live up to their claims to care about customers and the future of the postal service and to honour their pledge to call off all strikes.”

A CWU spokeswoman said that the union was very disappointed by Mr Higson’s reply and that a deal to avoid a strike now “looks unlikely”. Without a breakthrough today, she said that the union was poised to give a week’s formal notice of its plan tomorrow — meaning that industrial action was likely to commence on or after October 22.

A national strike would paralyse Britain’s postal service and add to a backlog of 30 million letters already stuck in the system. Such a strike could cost the economy £1.5 billion and deal a severe blow to online retailers, according to analysis commissioned by Kelkoo, a shopping comparison website.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, said that a national postal strike would be a “suicidal act ... The Government has backed Royal Mail financially with billions of pounds so that the company can modernise, but these strikes will impede that essential process. Strikes are not the way to resolve differences or safeguard the future of our postal service,” he said.

David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said that the announcement was a “serious knock to business confidence ... The run-up to Christmas is a vital trading period for firms and, if this strike goes ahead, orders will be lost and the fragile recovery will be undermined.”

Q&A

How can I get my post delivered during a strike?

About one in three items are handled by rivals, such as Business Post and TNT Post.

They are expected to be able to cater for 15 to 25 per cent of Royal Mail’s peak capacity over Christmas. Packages will fare better, as most private operators use Royal Mail to deliver letters

When will the strike begin?

Unions are likely to give a week’s formal notice tomorrow, allowing a strike to start on or after next Thursday

When will the dispute end?

Unions have given almost no indication of how long a national strike would go on: it could be 24 hours, or rolling strikes lasting weeks

[chunk]

The competition only deliver <1% of letters as they are only interested in packets.

[barkersboy]

Mr Higson said that a “peace offer” received yesterday from Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, was “in reality a series of fresh demands against Royal Mail”. Mr Higson said: “If they are genuinely interested in peace, I challenge them now to live up to their claims to care about customers and the future of the postal service and to honour their pledge to call off all strikes.”

What aload of bollocks. The union has been asking to negotiate the the contents of the letter for many months. There is nothing new in the Cwu letter. In fact the reason for the proposed strikes is because the Royal Mail wont address the issues. I and most of my colleagues want the strike because the letter sets ou the issues that we unhappy about.

[barbario]

I was wondering ,if i was the only person that was thinking that at the root of this strike is the Goverments attempts to steal our pension fund to help plug the countrys financies. Obviously,the Goverment are behind the management to destroy the postal system so they can then have an excuse to privatise us .They can then get their grubby hands our pension.

[mailman337]

And most of all they want to smash the CWU............ :mfo :mfo :mfo