Industrial action that had been due to start on Merseyside tomorrow morning has been halted, after Royal Mail bosses today withdrew a disciplinary case against a CWU rep.
Ray Ellis, CWU assistant secretary, explained that the last-ditch deal had been reached after lengthy discussions with the company’s Director of IR, HR and Policy Helen Dixon.
While the case against Chris Stott, the CWU unit rep, has been dropped, there are still several outstanding disciplinary actions pending against other members of staff. It has been agreed that, if any of these cases reach the level of potential dismissal or suspended dismissal, a fully independent – i.e. non-Royal Mail – manager will be brought in to hear the appeal.
Going forward, and because workplace relations have been so bad at Bootle, it has been agreed to hold a Review and Improvement Plan process, to be overseen from the union side by a PEC nominee and a senior national manager from the company. An external mediator will be appointed to make sure that its recommendations are implemented on a timely basis.
“On that basis, the action that had been scheduled for this weekend has now been withdrawn,” explained Ray, “and we sincerely hope that this will be the start of a new and much more positive era for Bootle Delivery Office.”
The dispute at Bootle was originally sparked when a member accused a manager of discriminatory comments based on his Muslim faith. A spontaneous walkout by the workforce in support of their colleague led to 7 days of unofficial action. This was followed by an industrial action ballot in December in response to disciplinary action against the Union rep which returned an overwhelming majority for a strike – which had been due to start tomorrow.
