CWU serves notice for Royal Mail strike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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CWU has today (Monday) served formal notice for strike action in Royal Mail for Monday 4 November. Under UK laws a trade union must give at least seven days' notice of any industrial action.

Talks are continuing between CWU and Royal Mail as the union seeks an agreement on pay, job security and terms and conditions in the newly-privatised company. Talks are scheduled for every day this week, in addition to the three days which took place last week. If no agreement is reached by the end of the week then 24 hour strike action on 4 November will affect all non-managerial functions in Royal Mail and Parcelforce. It will be the first national strike since 2009 and would hit deliveries, collections and other mail operations such as sorting, logistics and call centre functions.

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, is leading the negotiations with Royal Mail. "Our members have clearly spoken that they care more about their jobs than they do about shares" he said. "It's important that we secure a legally-binding, lasting agreement which will tackle the big issues facing postal workers in their work lives.

"There's a lot of concern about job security since privatisation and it's that as well as pay and addressing the outlook of the company that we're tackling in these talks. Regardless of who owns this company, CWU will be here to protect the interests of workers who literally deliver the service."

Postal workers voted by four to one (78%) in favour of strike action in a ballot announced on 16 October. CWU balloted 115,000 members in Royal Mail group and Parcelforce working in non-managerial jobs including deliveries, drivers, sorting staff, admin and support grades. Strike action is due to take place all day on Monday 4 November 2013 with members going on strike at the beginning of their normal duty and not returning to work until their next normal day of work starting on Tuesday 5 November.

[paranoid-android]

Am I being thick, but isn't today a day late to give a full seven days notice?

[Red Robbo]

Monday - Sunday equals 7 days notice, that will balls up the weekend collection

[paranoid-android]

Monday - Sunday equals 7 days notice

True, but not seven full days!

[Red Robbo]

What do you suggest then would be a full 7 days notice ?

[paranoid-android]

What do you suggest then would be a full 7 days notice ?

If a strike is to start at say 04:30 mon 4th, then notice be served 04:29 on mon 28th, only speculating that rm legal peeps may use this to cause delay.

[Red Robbo]

My understanding is that the day of strike action must not be part of the notice period

[wandle]

My understanding is that the day of strike action must not be part of the notice period

In which case, paranoid-android has a point. Will RM's lawyers have a good laugh at the CWU's expense??

[britwrit]

Interesting. No talk about the second ballot either?

You never want to go on strike but after all these posts here talking about how it would "bring Royal Mail to its knees," I half want to see what a work-to-rule action would look like.

[coxie]

7 days notice is all that is required the time doesn't matter it doesn't have to be a full day

[BernardBresslaw]

My understanding is that the day of strike action must not be part of the notice period

In which case, paranoid-android has a point. Will RM's lawyers have a good laugh at the CWU's expense??

I think dingo explained this elsewhere - today still counts as one of the days, so monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday + sunday = 7 days notice.

[fishtank]

It's one of the few things the law is vague about.
It just says seven days before the day specified in the notice not seven exact 24hr periods.
No doubt the Employment Relations Act 2016 will specify 604,800 seconds.

[UnhappyGremlin]

Was given a courier news flash on my way out.
Usual crap. More begging.

[biscuit1957]

I thought we voted weeks ago and got the yes vote,strike date was end of September and was put back

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I thought we voted weeks ago and got the yes vote,strike date was end of September and was put back

No the Ballot itself didn't finish till just over 2 weeks ago so any strike in September would have been local or WildCat.

Bye the Bye - anyone else had Managers spreading the rumour about the strike might not go ahead because RM say that they did not get their full 7 days notice and that they thought the strike was starting at 5pm.