Royal Mail and CWU reach strikes agreement on pay and conditions - members will now vote on the deal

A bitter and long-running industrial dispute between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail may have reached a conclusion as the union has published details of an agreement reached between both parties.

Talks between the company and the union concluded without a formal agreement earlier this month, but the union’s executive have been debating Royal Mail’s final offer for the last week.

The union has now published details of the deal, which includes a 10% pay increase over three years and a profit-sharing agreement. CWU has said that while “no agreement or negotiation ever results in one party getting everything they want… we have shifted Royal Mail on every single one of their original positions”. CWU members will now get the opportunity to vote on the deal.

CWU members have carried out a number of strikes across 2023 and 2022, over the pay dispute, which has caused disruption to postal dispute.

Pay, conditions and profit-share

According to CWU, the agreement will see Royal Mail commit to no compulsory redundancies until at least April 2025, and a 10% increase to base pay over three years plus a £500 lump sum.

The union also confirmed that the company will in future provide the first 20% of profits to workers through a profit sharing scheme. The company had been widely criticised throughout the course of the dispute for the huge dividend payouts issued to shareholders in recent years.

The union has also secured progress on issues including start times, flexibility and sick pay. On the latter issue, the union has described the terms of the deal as “less favourable than the current arrangements”, but “materially better than the employer’s original proposal”.

On backpay, a sticking point throughout the talks, the union has not managed to secure a guarantee, but said it has opened up discussions about a potential lump sum in the near future, although this is “not guaranteed”.

Royal Mail has also committed to a fully independent review of all conduct cases arising from the dispute.

In a joint statement to members from CWU general secretary Dave Ward and deputy general secretary for postal, Andy Furrey, they said: “Royal Mail Group’s plan was always to call on this dispute and, in the process, they spent millions and millions not to settle the dispute but to crush their own workforce – this was a huge error of judgement.

“They wanted to create a totally compliant workforce. What they have ended up with is 120,000 workers who stand unequivocally with their union. We have created the next generation of CWU representatives, and they have ensured that our culture of togetherness will continue into the next generation of postal workers.”

Members will be given the opportunity to vote to approve the deal, with details of the vote expected to be published imminently.