No. 436/2016
20th July 2016
POST OFFICE: CROWN OFFICE PAY 2016 – UPDATE
Dear Colleagues
Branches and members will be aware we submitted a pay claim on 6th January for a one-year
unconditional pay increase for Crown members of at least 1.9%, to achieve parity with year
three of the three year pay agreement reached in December 2014 for members working in
Admin & Supply Chain.
After much procrastination on the part of the Post Office, an improved offer was finally
received on 14th July this offer is as follows
•
a 1.9% pay rise on basic pay, overtime rates and all pensionable allowances including
London Weighting fully backdated to 1st April 2016
One major condition was placed on the pay offer as follows:
The offer above is contingent on the acceptance that the Christmas Eve Opening Hours
dispute is resolved with immediate effect with the union accepting the position of the
Post Office (this would mean a 16:00 closure on Christmas Eve going forward).
Rejection of the Conditional Pay Offer
As the prospect of a Post Office wide dispute becomes increasingly likely, it is totally
inappropriate and outwith conference policy to agree a condition which has absolutely nothing
to do with pay. The Post Office is simply being opportunistic and should instead seek to
resolve the Christmas opening hours issue in a completely separate negotiation. As a
consequence, the Postal Executive yesterday unanimously rejected this conditional offer.
The Christmas conditionality is principally unacceptable, especially given the Unite pay
agreement for managers reached just last week which was also a 1.9% pay increase from the
pay date of 1st June 2016 with absolutely no strings attached.
Last Friday we consulted with the Territorial and Area Representatives and the overall
consensus amongst these Reps is supportive of the reject position.
Next Steps
Following the Postal Executive’s decision, we have written to the Post Office to formally reject
the pay offer due to the conditionality around Christmas opening hours.
We have advised the Post Office that our negotiation team remains available for urgent talks in
order to achieve a reasonable and fair pay agreement.
Any further developments will be reported to Branches and Crown members as appropriate.
If you have any questions in relation to this LTB, please contact Lea Sheridan
[email protected]
Yours sincerely
Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary