Postal union in high court bid to block Royal Mail 'strike

[Geezer]

Postal union in high court bid to block Royal Mail 'strike breakers'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/0 ... -court-bid

Postal workers claim 30,000 temps staff are being employed illegally


* Jamie Doward, Home Affairs Editor
* The Observer, Sunday 1 November 2009


The union representing striking postal workers will go to the high court this week in an attempt to stop Royal Mail recruiting 30,000 temporary staff who they allege are being used as "strike breakers".

A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union said that, after two weeks of evidence gathering, it was now in a position to bring its case against the Royal Mail. The development came amid claims that Jobcentre Plus staff have been told to stop sending applicants for the temporary positions until the legality of Royal Mail's action has been established.

"We will be in the high court on either Monday or Tuesday, when we hope to stop Royal Mail recruiting more workers being used to break a legal trade dispute," said a spokesman for the union. The case could play a pivotal role in the future of the strike.

The company denies that the 30,000 employees are being used to break the strike, claiming that they are needed to cope with the high demand during the festive period. However, last year the business recruited only 15,000 extra temporary staff.

The threat of further industrial action in the run-up to Christmas would place acute pressures on Royal Mail. The CWU has warned that the current backlog of letters and packets could rise from around 65 million to 150 million as the autumn progresses. Royal Mail claims the current backlog totals only 35 million items of post.

Yesterday about 77,000 delivery and collection staff went on strike for 24 hours in protest at changes to pay and working conditions, the third successive day of industrial action by Royal Mail employees. Further action is planned for this month unless marathon talks between the two sides can produce a breakthrough. The union has announced a third wave of 24-hour national walkouts next Friday, 6 November, and on Monday, 9 November, involving all of its 121,000 postal members, although frantic efforts were continuing this weekend to find a peace deal.

Negotiators from the union and the company were considering a series of proposals drawn up during talks last week chaired by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. The two sides want to resume negotiations soon and said they planned to make no comment this weekend on the prospects of finding an agreement.

"It is not necessary for this strike to take place and the union remains focused on reaching an agreement," said CWU general secretary Billy Hayes. "We hope that Royal Mail will also now be equally focused. CWU is determined to reach an agreement or make enough progress to call off strike action next week."

Mark Higson, managing director of Royal Mail, yesterday condemned the union for raising the spectre of more strikes, warning it would "distract" from the peace efforts.

"The CWU's irresponsible behaviour underlines just how muddled and confused the thinking of the union is – and how little it really cares about customers or the future of the UK postal service," Higson said.

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

Yesterday Royal Mail said 25% of delivery workers had turned up for duty despite the strike. The figure was higher than the 20% of people who worked during last week's walkout by delivery employees, according to a Royal Mail spokeswoman.

[fishtank]

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

A rather damming statement from a man who's legal team will now walk into court and say "The're not there to do striking postmans work"

Oops!

[mucker]

it seems to me the stumbling block when trying to reach a agreement is the 30.000 causals,i cant see anything changing until royal fail stop employing them and of course mandy higgy and crazier are the biggest problem

[Pinky 1]

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

A rather damming statement from a man who's legal team will now walk into court and say "The're not there to do striking postmans work"

Oops!

Oh dear ......Mark Higson, you've dropped a bollock here my son.
Tell me again, what position do you actually hold at Royal Mail ? ...

[Budfrog]

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

A rather damming statement from a man who's legal team will now walk into court and say "The're not there to do striking postmans work"

Oops!

Spot on >>> Higson clearly doesn't understand that a letter not sorted on Day A due to IA, but sorted on Day B by an 'October Christmas Casual' is STILL the SAME letter !!!!

[ass asin]

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

A rather damming statement from a man who's legal team will now walk into court and say "The're not there to do striking postmans work"

Oops!

thats as long as our legal team r ne good

[Ahebban]

Assuming CWU do go to the High Court, I am not sure if proceedings are held behind closed doors. If not it could prove a very worthwhile PR exercise, if nothing else, if RM have to explain how they arrived at the current empasse in this dispute. We know from our own experience how secretive and paranoid RM get about sharing information with anyone unless it suits their own agenda. It will be interesting to see how they cope with there all too familiar 'economical with the truth' stance before a High Court judge!

[postghost]

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

A rather damming statement from a man who's legal team will now walk into court and say "The're not there to do striking postmans work"

Oops!

thats as long as our legal team r ne good

Hope they nail him!

[smokerjim]

Assuming CWU do go to the High Court, I am not sure if proceedings are held behind closed doors. If not it could prove a very worthwhile PR exercise, if nothing else, if RM have to explain how they arrived at the current empasse in this dispute. We know from our own experience how secretive and paranoid RM get about sharing information with anyone unless it suits their own agenda. It will be interesting to see how they cope with there all too familiar 'economical with the truth' stance before a High Court judge!

Perhaps even more petinant is how they can explain away double the usual number of casuals, when they have been saying the back log ( aprrox 35m ) is less than a day's worth of mail? And if the prosepct of further strike action was a distraction, why have talks at all - I would have thought it would focus the mind on the important things - why not go running off to ACAS, to ask for their opinion on maintaining IA during negotiations, why not go to Govt if things are that dire? There are a lot of noise coming out of Higson et al's mouths, but they're not saying much ( and making even less sense )

[stokes11eg]

At long last, the union is taking the bull by the horns--win or lose, they are at least fighting back--rather than giving into R/M demands.with a bit of luck, R/M will capitulate ---

[wranglered]

"Thanks to the efforts of all our people who continue to work, to the dedication of managers and to the help of up to 30,000 fully vetted temporary workers engaged by Royal Mail, we will be able to limit the effect of the current strikes and expect to get any delayed mail to our customers by early next week, well ahead of the CWU's next planned action."

A rather damming statement from a man who's legal team will now walk into court and say "The're not there to do striking postmans work"

Oops!

thats as long as our legal team r ne good

hmmmm......what people forget is that NO WAY has Higson dropped a bollock...his statement to the press will have been poured over by their legal team and solicitors....

I might be wrong, and I sometimes am, but I would suspect RM are 100% legally confident of winning....

If that is the case, perhaps they will let the next two days strikes go ahead knowing that the CWU will lose in court and there will be a big drift back to work....

[El-Bandito]

I found this article online thought it was interesting reading!
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19426" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Wessex]

All that is needed I would imagine is for the judge to grant an injunction to scupper RM's plans.

[Tall Guy]

surely though, even if it's held to be illegal to use casuals to break the strike, it won't be illegal to employ them the minute everyone is back at work.

therefore, if it was an all out strike on an indefinite basis, it would be illegal, but if the one day jobs keep going then the causals will be in every day that people are working?? even if cwu win the case, which is not certain.

[fishtank]

surely though, even if it's held to be illegal to use casuals to break the strike, it won't be illegal to employ them the minute everyone is back at work.

therefore, if it was an all out strike on an indefinite basis, it would be illegal, but if the one day jobs keep going then the causals will be in every day that people are working?? even if cwu win the case, which is not certain.

Fair comment but there is evidence the Motorola outhouse in Bathgate was working right through the strikes.
If RM were found guilty the fines would be massive but i don't really believe it will come to that.
I think it will more likely be used as a bargaining chip at the talks.
The most we could probably hope for is an injunction to stop them working on strike days.