Thousands of Post Office workers are striking over pay. The dispute is separate from the current row over pay and condition at Royal Mail.
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are taking action for 24 hours. CWU official Andy Furey said the union had to call a strike because its legal mandate for taking action was about to expire.
The union said the Post Office had increased the pay offer for 2022/23 from an initial 2% with a £250 cash lump sum to 5% with a £500 cash lump sum. But it said this was still “some considerable way behind” current inflation levels.
CWU official Andy Furey said: “It had not been our intention to call further strikes, but the attitude of the employer, in the context of our need to comply with statutory legislation, left us with no choice. We are confident that the strike – the sixth strike of CWU Post Office members – will be as solidly supported as each of the previous actions. And unless there is a serious pay offer, with increased money on offer, then not only will this action go ahead, but we will also begin the process of undertaking a second national strike ballot.”
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We want to assure our customers that the vast majority of our 11,500 branches are unaffected by the CWU decision to strike and will be open throughout the day. There are 114 branches, typically in city centres, that are directly managed by Post Office and on previous strike days over half have opened as usual.”
In a different dispute, yesterday Royal Mail workers announced they would stage a further 19 strikes in the next two months over pay and conditions. The Communication Workers Union announced that the action in October and November will be a mixture of single days and rolling action across Royal Mail Group’s network.
