From today (Wednesday 22nd January), Royal Mail workers will have the opportunity to vote for a landmark settlement reached between the CWU and Royal Mail in an individual members ballot which closes on the 5th February. The settlement - the product of protracted and difficult negotiations - resulted in agreements on the future of Royal Mail as well as on pensions.
The Agenda for growth, stability and long term success will see pay increased over three years by 9.06%. It also includes an agreement that Royal Mail will not outsource, sell or transfer any part of its business and that future change will not include compulsory redundancy. The pensions agreement secures significant safeguards for the future of the Defined Benefit Royal Mail Pension Plan RMPP and major improvements to the Royal Mail Defined Contribution Plan (RMDCP), all bound by legal protections.
Deputy general secretary Dave Ward, who led the negotiations, branded the agreements "ground-breaking in that they shape the future in a very different way and ensure the emphasis shifts away from managing decline in favour of ushering in a new era for postal services in the UK".
He continued: "From the outset we sought to secure a long-term and legally binding agreement that not only protected our members' jobs, pay and pensions but also determined the strategy, principles and values of how the Royal Mail Group would operate as a private entity.
"The agreements secured mean a privately owned Royal Mail Group cannot maximise its profit by minimising the value of jobs and replicating the competitors terms and conditions and puts postal workers in the strongest position possible to face the future."
Urging members to vote in favour of both agreements, Dave said: "We believe the extended protections offered by the legally binding nature of both agreements is not only significant for our members but sets a new precedent for the wider labour movement in the UK."
Ballot papers dispatched today will ask members to vote on each agreement separately. If you have any questions about the deal speak to your local CWU representative or visit check out the resources page for access to both agreements in full, the pamphlet and ballot insert sent to members ahead of the ballot and the briefing documents discussed at the reps briefings.
Watch as Dave Ward talks frankly about the details of the deal in this interview with CWU TV, debunking the criticisms and addressing members' main concerns.
