IoM Posties 'no closer' to resolving pay dispute

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POST Office workers and management are no closer to resolving a pay dispute, a union official has warned.

Following the latest meeting on Friday to try to find a solution, a Post Office spokesman said that talks were 'continuing to progress positively'.

But Communication Workers' Union national officer Terry Pullinger said: 'It's positive in the sense they we are still in talks.

'But the situation is extremely difficult, exacerbated by ridiculous broad brush public sector pay freeze.

'However, we continue to explore every possible avenue to reach an agreement.'

Mr Pullinger met the Post Office's acting chief executive Mike Kelly to work their way through a number of proposals submitted by the CWU last month.

The union believe that they could provide a solution through 'efficiencies' which would benefit employees in respect of their reward package and the business through a more streamlined and effective operation and improved profits.

'We are no closer to an agreement,' Mr Pullinger said.

'We are exploring where there could be consensus between us.'
He said members were feeling 'frustrated, angry and demotivated' by the situation.

The Post Office, a statutory authority, was hit by the government's public sector pay freeze which came into effect this year.

When the union began its annual pay discussions with the Post Office in April, Mr Pullinger said they were told there was no room to manoeuvre.

But Mr Pullinger said that postal workers should not be treated in the same way as civil servants because the Post Office is not a government department and contributes to the government as Treasury takes 50 per cent of its profits.

The CWU had threatened that its members – about 300 out of a total workforce of 452 – could strike unless a deal to overcome the dispute over a pay freeze was reached.