Royal Mail union calls for fresh negotiations to avoid 'Christmas postal meltdown'

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Royal Mail workers are warning of a “Christmas meltdown” for parent company International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) as they say letters and parcels are building up as management "refuse to enter negotiations that would avert strikes".

Labour's shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has written to Grant Shapps, the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy to address his “extreme concerns” over the conduct of Royal Mail management.

If serious questions were not asked, Reynolds expressed his concern that the future of Royal Mail as a “thriving” company is put at risk.

Last week, the 115,000 members of the company's main union, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), carried out a 48-hour strike and another is planned for this Wednesday and Thursday after a pay offer was rejected.

Six more days of postal strikes in December are planned.

The CWU said it has written to Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson at the weekend, calling for fresh negotiations.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect.

He said the company's workers “want to get on with serving the communities they belong to" but "will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families".

Thompson did not turn up to the final negotiations with union leaders, it was reported by CityAM, having been present at negotiations facilitated by conciliation service Acas, including two weekends.

CWU members last week held a series of no-confidence votes in the CEO, saying that workers "don’t deserve to have their pay smashed, their conditions ripped up and their lives wrecked by Simon Thompson, who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

The union said today that the strikes can be resolved “if Royal Mail begin treating their workers with respect, and meet with the union to resolve this dispute”.

Royal Mail's parent IDS said there was a £70mln impact on operating profit from three days of industrial action in the first half of the year with the further five days of action in October estimated to have cost another £30mln.