News

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has called off planned Royal Mail strike action for today and Monday, after the two parties came to an interim agreement.

The union believes that the agreement will provide a period of calm for the CWU and Royal Mail to reach a full and final settlement.

The interim deal guarantees that modernisation will be introduced with agreed job security and improved  terms and conditions for postal workers. It also addresses all the issues included in the long-running local disputes that have been flaring up.

However, the union maintains that the strike ballot remains in place.

The British publicly-owned postal and parcel service has been in protracted conflict with unions over plans for modernisation.

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward says: "There needs to be exceptional efforts to improve trust and [the] relationship between CWU and Royal Mail. As a result, both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and ACAS (arbitration service) will play a continuing role in keeping the discussions and agreement on track."

A statement from Royal Mail says: "We're really sorry for the inconvenience we know [the] disruption to mail has caused, and we are now concentrating on getting services back to normal in areas recently  affected by industrial action."

Further updates will be given later today (6 November).