Royal Mail acts on Christmas post

05 December 2022

Companies & suppliers

Royal Mail: strike action could make pay offer unaffordable

Industrial action has forced Royal Mail to bring forward its Christmas last posting dates by as much as six days compared with last year, as the stand-off between the group and CWU members continues – with a massive rally planned for the end of this week.

At the end of last week Royal Mail announced it had revised its latest posting dates for items that need to be delivered before Christmas.

Second class mail now needs to be posted by 12 December – whereas last year the equivalent date was six days later on 18 December.

First class post should be sent by 16 December, five days earlier than in 2021.

Bulk economy mail needs to be sent by Wednesday of this week.

Meanwhile, the CWU has tweeted a video of Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson being interviewed on the BBC where the wall art behind him appears to show a reflection of someone writing answers on a whiteboard while he is talking. The CWU clip has been viewed more than 1.7m times.

This morning (5 December) the CWU also announced that it plans to hold a national strike rally in central London on 9 December.

“We already have 10,000 postal workers confirmed for the strike rally on Friday… this will only get bigger,” the CWU stated.

The union also shared a Royal Mail communication to employees warning that further strike action “will rapidly make the pay offer become unaffordable and it may need to be withdrawn”.

The current offer on the table is for 9% over 18 months.

The CWU called for the business to return to the negotiating table, and stated: “Your attempts to break our membership [are] as desperate as they are cruel.”

Separately, retailer Currys has paused its use of Royal Mail parcel services due to the strike disruption. In an interview on BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme CEO Alex Baldock said it only involved a relatively small amount of small parcels.

The remaining strike dates for December are: