Royal Mail has announced the plans they have to counteract further industrial action taken by the members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
The CWU has formally notified Royal Mail that they plan to call on their members who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters to take four days of national strike action on the following days:
- Thursday, November 24 2022
- Friday, November 25 2022
- Wednesday, November 30 2022
- Thursday, December 1 2022
The CWU recently announced other dates in December, but they have not formally notified Royal Mail that strikes will take place on these dates. Royal Mail has said: "We want to reach an agreement with the CWU and return to providing the quality and frequency of service you have every right to expect. We also know that you want us to transform to meet your customers’ demands.
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"Over the last ten days, we have been in intensive talks with the CWU to reach an agreement on the current pay and change dispute. We have proposed a conditional pay-for-change offer to the CWU worth 9 per cent over two years.
"The offer is subject to agreeing on a programme of change with the CWU. Talks are ongoing."
So, what are Royal Mail's plans for the upcoming strike dates? Read on below to find out more.
Parcel and Letter Deliveries
On days when strike action is taking place:
- Royal Mail plans to deliver as many Special Delivery Guaranteed parcels as possible. They prioritise and deliver as many Special Delivery Guaranteed items as resources allow. They cannot, however, guarantee delivery by 9am or 1pm next day, so the company is making changes to their delivery guarantee for items posted from Wednesday, November 23 up to and including items sent on Saturday, December 3 2022. Customers will not be able to claim for delays to items during this period. Further information about how this impacts future strike dates will be communicated closer to the dates.
- Royal Mail will deliver as many Tracked 24 parcels as possible including prioritising the delivery of Covid-19 test kits and medical prescription items wherever possible. However, significantly reduced resources mean there will be a delay to some Tracked 24 items during strike action.
- On strike days, Royal Mail will not be delivering letters (with exception of Special Delivery). Other items posted the day before, during strike action or on the days after any strike action will be subject to delay.
Royal Mail also won’t be able to provide a collection service to business customers on days when strikes are taking place. They are asking customers to post before strike days or hold items until after strike action finishes.
Business Collections
Business collections will resume on the next working day after a national strike date. The company is unable to accept bookings for additional or one-off collections on the day of strike action or for the next working day.
Delivery Offices and Customer Service Points will be closed on days when strike action is taking place, customers will not be able to collect or drop off items on these dates.
Delivery Offices and Customer Service Points
If you usually drop off bags of items to Customer Service Points, you can take them to a Post Office branch or to one of c1700 Collect+ sites which will accept Royal Mail items on days when strikes are taking place. You can check your nearest available Collect+ drop-off online.
Delivery Offices and Customer Service Points will reopen the day after the strike action has finished.
Post Offices
Post Offices will be open as usual, and collections by Royal Mail from Post Offices will be limited on the days of strike action. Customers can still collect Local Collect items at Post Offices on strike days.
Services resuming to normal after strike action
The company wants to get your services back to normal as quickly as possible after any strike action. Royal Mail will be increasing our network capacity and using additional resources to assist with this.
Collections and deliveries will resume the day after strike action finishes, including accelerating the delivery of NHS and healthcare letters, and critical Government mailings on the days following strike action.
The Royal Mail website has all the latest updates available when it comes to upcoming strike action, and will answer questions in their FAQs section too.
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