date: 5 November 2009

embargo: For immediate release

TUC statement on Royal Mail agreement

Commenting today (Thursday) on the agreement reached between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union (CWU), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'I am pleased to be able to report that after intensive negotiations over recent days an agreement has been reached between Royal Mail and the CWU. Dave Ward the Deputy General Secretary of the CWU will speak to you shortly, as will Mark Higson, Managing Director of Royal Mail.

'The agreement provides for a 'period of calm' free of industrial action to enable negotiations to be held over the next couple of months through to the end of the year to secure the longer term agreements necessary on all aspects of modernisation of Royal Mail. It also provides a way of resolving outstanding local disputes, and addresses all the issues of concern to the CWU and its members.

'The delivery of the terms of this agreement means that Royal Mail services will be free of any disruption up to and through the Christmas period. That's what Royal Mail want and that's what the CWU want, and that's what both parties are committed to.

'The agreement also provides for an appropriate independent person, acceptable to both parties, to work with the support of ACAS, overseeing and supporting the detailed negotiations that now need to take place.

'The agreement reached today is, I think, a very important step forward. But it is a long way from the end of the road. Over the next period an immense amount of hard work is going to be needed in Royal Mail and the CWU to hammer out the final agreement on the way forward in a company that is facing a period of dramatic change.

'In a difficult and protracted dispute of this nature inevitably hard words have been said on both sides. I am in no doubt either that a lack of trust between the union and management has been one of the major obstacles to an agreement being reached at an earlier stage. That is why an important element of what has been agreed is a shared recognition that trust has to be rebuilt.

'Change is certainly coming. What both the management and the union have committed to is working together to manage that change in a way that really carries the confidence of the workforce, to ensure that this vital public service meets the needs of all those millions of people and businesses for whom the post is a vital lifeline.

'I am very glad that the TUC has been able to assist the CWU and Royal Mail reach this agreement, and I pay tribute to the patience and perseverance of the negotiators on each side led by Dave Ward and Mark Higson. But there is plenty of hard work still to be done.'

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Press release (600 words) issued 5 Nov 2009