No decision in post strike talks.

[kwf166]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8325326.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Talks between Royal Mail and union leaders aimed at ending the row over pay, conditions and modernisation have ended for the day without agreement.

The sides will reconvene on Tuesday but if no deal is reached, postal workers are planning three more walkouts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The TUC, which is brokering the negotiations said Monday's talks had been "useful".

Neither Royal Mail or the Communication Workers Union (CWU) would comment.

Earlier the CWU said it was "looking forward" to the talks, and Royal Mail chief Adam Crozier had said before the talks that he hoped "common sense" would prevail.

Meanwhile the volume of delayed mail is expected to fall to five million items by the end of the day, Royal Mail said.

Royal Mail had previously said that the backlog was 30 million items.

The CWU had claimed that the backlog was in excess of 100 million items on Saturday morning.

'Positive change'

Postal workers staged two days of strikes on Thursday and Friday last week.

The latest talks are taking place at the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which helped to resolve a dispute between the two sides in 2007.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has been brokering the latest negotiations.

The CWU earlier said it was a "huge, positive change" having Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson at the talks, as he had not been present at negotiations up until now.

Mr Higson had not commented when he arrived at the meeting.

However, the CWU's deputy general secretary Dave Ward had said there were some things the government needed to sort out, including the massive pension deficit at Royal Mail, believed to be about £10bn.

"We are very disappointed about some of the comments that Lord Mandelson is making about this dispute. He's not telling the truth about what this dispute is about," Mr Ward told journalists on his way into Congress House - where further talks will also take place.

If this week's strikes go ahead, they are due to involve:

Thursday - 43,700 staff in mail centres, delivery units in mail centres, network logistic drivers and garage staff walking out from 0400 GMT

• Friday - 400 workers at three sites in Plymouth, Stockport and Stoke, who assist mail centres by reading and entering mail addresses

• Saturday - 77,000 delivery and collection staff across the UK.

Focusing on customers

While both sides agree that job cuts are necessary, they disagree over their extent, and the future pay and working conditions of the workers that remain.

On Sunday, Mr Crozier told the BBC's Andrew Marr show that he hoped an outline deal would see the strikes cancelled.

Mr Crozier denied accusations he was taking a back seat in the dispute and said he was not involved in the direct talks with the union because his focus was instead on talking to affected customers.

He also denied that he was taking any direction from the government.

The CWU said it would not agree to any compulsory redundancies, adding, "we want change with agreement, with job security at the heart of it".

[viking1488]

to the cwu hope they told the royal mail where they can stick it where the sun dont shine looks like things are going to get tough peeps stand firm stand strong support your union :cfo

[Stumpy]

Lets not forget. Brendan Barber goes into these talks with egg all over his face, thanks to Royal mail renegaing on the 2007 agreement.

Lets hope he is the kind of man who does not forget easy.

[kwf166]

I am just hope the cwu is listing to it members