Postal staff back after strike action on working conditions
POSTAL staff in Glasgow will return to work today after three days of strike action over working conditions at a city centre site.
More than 100 workers staged a walkout on Friday after a dispute over conditions at the Royal Mail delivery office on Baird Street came to a head.
As a result, many of the mail deliveries due on Friday and Saturday were not completed in central Glasgow, with more delivered on Monday, focused on larger city centre businesses.
Striking staff said that many households across the city had gone without their post since Thursday.
A return to work was negotiated by representatives from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) on Monday, with staff citing the “culture” of the office and “increasing pressures” of the job as the reasons for the action.
Mick Cavanagh, CWU National Executive member, said: “There are a lot of issues but hopefully we will manage to get them resolved.
“We need to get a healthy culture back in the office and our members need to be able to go into work without feeling the pressures which are there at the moment.
“I met Royal Mail on Monday and came to an agreement so it is time to move on now and provide a service to the public.”
After the meeting with bosses CWU branch secretary Jim McKechnie said he expected that staff would return to work as normal on Tuesday.
In the interim, a small amount of deliveries were reportedly carried out by Royal Mail management.
The affected postcode areas, G1 to G5, could see continued disruption as a result of the backlog.
Postal bosses have now shared their discontent at the nature of the walkout by staff. A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “Royal Mail is disappointed that un-balloted industrial action is continuing on Monday at Glasgow G1-5 delivery office after staff took action on Friday.
“We sincerely apologise to customers in the area for any disruption to their mail services.
“We are expecting staff to return to work on Tuesday.
“The customer service point remains open for the pick-up of mail. Royal Mail is fully committed to the process to resolve concerns of postal workers based in Glasgow by following the national jointly agreed framework with the Communication Workers Union.”