Royal Mail staff walk out in pay protest

31 August 2022

Royal Mail staff at Balivanich and Stornoway delivery offices staged a walkout today (Wednesday) in protest over pay and working practices.

Strike action on Friday and Wednesday significantly impacted mail services in the Western Isles.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and supporters gathered at a picket line outside the Stornoway sorting office.

Local CWU representative Murdo Sineath said frontline postal workers seek a decent wage rise but are facing attacks in their job conditions as well as real-term cuts in pay.

The company can afford it, having posted £758 million profits a few months and paying paying £400 million to shareholders as well as hefty executive bonuses, he said.

Mr Sineath said: “We are fighting for a no-strings attached pay rise of at least rate of inflation, because of the cost of living crisis.

“We are also fighting to safeguard our working conditions and to keep the universal service obligation (USO).”

The USO is enshrined in law to ensure a one-price-goes-anywhere service for the delivery of letters and parcels throughout the United Kingdom.

Well over 100,000 Royal Mail employees across Britain took industrial action today (Wednesday).

Their employer has imposed an 2% pay increase.

A further 3.5% is on offer, partially made up of a productivity bonus, and subject to a series of employment reforms.

The union said the additional increase was only payable if workers “ripped up their terms and conditions."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are losing £1 million a day and the CWU’s strike action is making our situation worse.

“We want to protect well-paid, permanent jobs long-term and retain our place as the industry leader on pay, terms and conditions. Each strike day makes that more difficult, making Royal Mail’s future more uncertain than at any time in its long history.”

Further industrial action takes place on Thursday and Friday of next week.

Royal Mail strikers in Stornoway