Leaders of the CWU union have recommended their members accept the latest Royal Mail of a one year, no strings attached 1.6% pay increase. The terms of the deal were hammered out during negotiations between Royal Mail and the CWU amidst industrial action held by CWU members.

On Wednesday (1 June) the CWU released a statement that said, “The proposal, which has met with the approval of the union’s industrial executive, is fully consolidated and will lift basic pay by 1.6% for all CWU-represented grades within the business apart from Romec and Quadrant, whose pay awards are negotiated separately.

“Backdated to April 4th 2016 for weekly-paid staff and to April 1st 2016 for monthly-paid, the increase flows through to all pay supplements, skills and unsocial attendance allowances, London Weighting, Scottish Distant Island allowance, overtime and scheduled attendance rates and matches the March 2016 retail price index (RPI), keeping members’ earnings up with the cost of living.”

Speaking of the Royal Mail offer, Ray Ellis, CWU’s acting deputy general secretary (postal), said, “The view of the pay negotiating team, endorsed by the postal executive at its meeting yesterday, is that the offer represents an acceptable conclusion to the 2016 pay talks that meets the policies we have adopted for a clean, one-year, no-strings deal.

“The offer will therefore be recommended for acceptance in an individual members’ ballot, which opens on June 9th and closes on the 30th.”

In the run up to the deal being agreed between the union and Royal Mail, industrial action had been scaled back with the implicit possibility of action being taken again.