Proactive Investors - Royal Mail (LON:IDSI), part of the International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) group, has slightly raised its pay offer and slightly reduced demands on other working conditions for workers, as an agreement is sought ahead of planned 48-hour strikes tomorrow and next week.
The postal service operator has offered 9% pay rise spread over 18 months, according to reports overnight.
This compares to a previous offer that company said was worth 9% over two years, but the Communications Workers Union (CWU) said was a 7% rise over two years.
Leaders of the CWU, which represents postal workers, rejected the previous offer as “derisory” amid consumer price inflation that has been near or above 10% for much of this year alone.
The latest offer was said to be the “best and final” offer, the Telegraph reported, with more ‘family friendly’ working hours and no longer forcing staff to work on Sundays.
Royal Mail management has threatened to terminate talks if there are further strikes.
As well as the strike planned for Thursday and Friday this week, walkouts are planned by the union’s 115,000 members next Wednesday and Thursday, along with six more days in December.
A Royal Mail spokesman said on Monday that the CWU had shared "alternative proposals which we are reviewing and expect to get round the table to discuss again on Tuesday."
CWU members this week held a series of no-confidence votes in Royal Mail's chief executive, 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."
Analysts have also questioned the company's management.
"With or without a deal, we remain sceptical about management’s ability to successfully execute restructuring and reap the associated benefits," said Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo this week. "The recent track record has been poor, and that was without union opposition."