Postal workers have been offered 2.5%, nothing has been mentioned about the admin members of the CWU who Royal Mail have decided not to include in these pay talks.
Royal Mail say the admin staff are too well paid, well for a job without qualifications I think the postmen are extremely well paid, but as the admin staff over the years have been downsized Royal Mail know that their voices will strain to be heard in the current pay negotiations.
Whilst on the point of being well paid in the mail centre I work in we have managers who have no staff to manage but they are very very well paid, and as mentioned previously I don't suppose Mr Leighton & Mr Crozier will give up any of their bonuses or pay related deals. The phrase Pot calling the kettle black springs immediatley to mind.

s stevens, sheffield,

why should postmen have to subsidse royal mails 13 year pension holiday? they also want us to deliver leaflets for nothing its all very well for messers leighton and crozier to freeze their pay but they are earning millions whilst postmen are on a lot less !!!!!!!!!!!

chris , bristol,

I am a postman in oxfordshire we have to much mail to deliver now with not enough time to do it in.where will it all end ?

fred, oxford,

As an experienced postwoman, I fail to see why the "management" have decided to try every trick in the book to sack all the postmen with old contracts and replace them all with foreign workers on completely different contracts, offering us all an appealing pay-cut, more hours, less money, and two of my coligues with cancer have received warnings for time off sick - need I say more?

Pat delapost, Helsinki, England

Im a full-time working mother on Royal Mail Deliverys,how ill informed people are on the working practices RM put onto their staff,most of us go out with upto 8-9 bags of mail most days,they expect us to do all this work in under 4 hrs without breaks if you require over time you are questioned to why you take so long.While managers go home on time the staff are still working.The pay deal is laughable the idea is few of us do more work with no extra money and put other people out of work,D2D they want us to take more out and to only pay us for the amount they do now,they want us to take out up to three more leaflets no extra money,the customers are already complaining about the leaflets they get now.RM want to start us later so you get your mail later no real reason other than it will save money on shift allowance,as for james comments there are alot of trades people who work on RM the only reason they are not within their own trade is because they were made unemployed within their own.

c cambell-smitt, canterbury,

Apart from incompetent senior management,
the pay issue aside, albeit serious, and a gross insult to a loyal and hard working workforce,one of the biggest problems crippling Royal Mail Letters is deregulation.
This is the directive for opening up the postal markets to competition throughout Europe.
We were pushed headlong into this well ahead of any other country, because our politicians thought that by the time the rest entered we would be well ahead of the game.
Not so however, because the French surprise surprise have just been on strike,and decided they would be best staying out of it to protect their own markets after seeing what has happened to Royal Mail
The Germans well ahead of the French, but well behind us, have said hang on then if that's the case perhaps we should delay for a couple of years.
To which the Italians replied, sounds good to us!
In the meantime good old Royal Mail are left attacked by the rest of Europe and UK competition and not allowed to fight back.

Tim Freeston, Lincoln, uk

This is not the fault of Royal Mail but our beloved Labour Governmrnt which has forced competition into industries & made a pig's ear in the process. Royal Mail will reduce in size just like the Post Office.

alan, cardiff, uk

A few years ago I remember reading the boss of Amazon Jeff Bezos (hope I got the name right) praising the Royal Mail and saying how there was nothing to compare in the US. The Labour Govt in this country are obsessed with crackpot free market reforms and won't leave a well functioning organisation alone so you get the insanity mentioned by a poster above where Govt mail is sent via the Swedish Post Office. Of course times are changing and organisations have to adapt but not to the extent that is indicated above. With these private organisations that coin it in delivering business mail much of the actual processing is still done by the Royal Mail. If you want a system where you get one mail delievery a week or one where people in rural areas have to drive 30 miles to pick up the mail then carry on with these reforms.

Gareth Francis, Swansea,

Perhaps Mr Leighton would consider not giving himself and Crozier whopping great bonuses for a job not well done this year in a bid to relieve the ' finantial tradgedy?' at Royal Mail.
Walking postmen are going on rounds loaded like donkeys,
Rural drivers are racing around lanes to just finish on time,
some cannot.
It's no wonder that the CWU is in uproar with RM and scrooge-like approach to staff!
The small lump sum payments are subject to tax as well !!!!And to add insult to injury RM offered 92p a week rise out of an efficiency savings pot of cuts it has already made!!!! 92p,
Cor it's the Bahamas this year love!!
The more RM cut ,the more service is affected, post people are very frustrated with senior management at present.
Workers are not whingers they just want fair money for the work they do.

cart, plymouth,

I think WPO from Warsaw might have misunderstood slightly. There is only one daily delivery not 4. That refers to the fact that on Saturdays Postmen will be expected to complete the work normally conducted by 4 men by 3. Now when you condider that a suggestion for summer is that 6 deliveries will be done by 5 men on Saturdays that means... Any one any good with fractions? BTW is that how industrial relations are conducted in Warsaw? Sack the lot of em first sign of trouble, best avoid France then WPO

robert, Truro,

As a Royal Mail Manager I can only say that the problems within our organization have been created by 2 main factors, inept Senior Management and a Postal Regulator that will not allow Royal Mail to compete fairly with other postal operators.

The Senior Management voluntarily entered de-regulation before they needed to and certainly before the full effects of competition were understood. In my opinion the company should have become more efficient before de-regulation and not as a knee jerk reaction to it..

The Postal Regulator does not understand the industry and expects Royal Mail to compete with it's hands ties behind it's back, preventing the company from increasing revenue whilst at the same time allowing other organizations to cherry pick the most profitable areas.

The CWU will use it's industrial muscle to ensure that it's members get the best possible deal. Sadly it's the poorly represented Middle/Junior Managers who will suffer in terms of pay and job losses.

Budfrog, Watford, UK, Herts

Lets get one thing clear, THERE IS NO COMPETITION because Royal Mail are NOT allowed to compete! So no matter what they do they cannot lower prices to compete with private companies.

Alan Leighton who is the chairman of Royal Mail has now decided to use "competition" as a big stick to part privatise and reduce staffing levels. 20 hour contracts are only offered to delivery staff now, no more full time employment, so staff rentention and morale is very low. If you think Nurses pay was bad just look at Royal Mail's, no one can offord to do this job.

The Government and Postcomm regulator are to blame for all this. We do not need competition, its not a game, we need a reliable network to send and receive mail goods. Stop systematically destroying it and give Royal Mail back its 350 year monopoly.

Matt, Sheffield, UK

While Royal Mail made £355million in 2005-06, its profits for the first half of the current financial year plunged to £22million.yes but the royal mail put £730 millon into the pension fund in 2006-2007 so the profit is £752 millon double the year before and with a new price rise from april 2nd 2007,is it fair on the post people ? there as been some bad management involed with the pension fund (the goverment ) !!! so why should we suffer typical behaviour of a company that is run by incompetents
they wont us to take a pay freeze which is fair enough but to give us a lump sum of £250,then take £30 a week off us in door to door (junk mail ) payment a loss of £25 a week would any body vote for that ? they are making us go on strike

thanking you skegness postman 20 years (sick of it )

postie, skegness, uk

wpo, it's collections that happen four times a day in cities, not deliveries. The delivery service for first class mail in the UK is not universal, despite Royal Mail's boasts about delivery everywhere every day. Our mail is delivered only once a week, twice now in the summer. Yet the uniform tariff is priced to cover all deliveries throughout the country, including the much cheaper routes in large urban areas. Whatever though, postal workers need to be paid sufficient to make them take pride in their work and wish to do it well. This doesn't seem to be the case at present.

Suzie, Hebrides, Scotland

as ex postie i am being informed by ex-workmates that royal mail are running the business to the ground and customers mail is being delayed because of savings in the business..LETS SUPPORT OUR POSTIES WHO DO A GREAT JOB IN ALL WEATHERS

postie, north west,

I have been a rural postman for over 20 years. I am on first name terms with most of my customers; I get newspapers, prescriptions and shopping for some. I feed cats and keep an eye on their houses when they are away. I have changed light bulbs and fixed gates. I have called ambulances and even found a body. Oh and by the way, I also deliver letters and packets.
When all this has gone and you only get one delivery a week and you have to travel 70 miles to pick up an item the courier company could not deliver. You will say to yourself, “why didn’t we look after our Postmen.”

Ed, Sussex,

This is typical behaviour of a company that is run by incompetent tyrants.

The process of delivering mail is hardly rocket science and yet the bully senior management in charge of this process pay themselves obscene salaries.

Come on Royal Mail, please stop winding up your loyal workers and give them the dignity and respect that they have earned.

alan bond, lancaster, england

The mail service has to be one of the most essential functions of a developed country. Yet again we seem to be going backwards in time, paying more for reduced provision. Likewise we pay more council tax whilst the holes in the road get bigger year on year and we are encouraged to let rubbish rot in bins for a fortnight.
Is this the sort of country we really want to live in?

barry, Dumfries,

the two comments above are ill-informed and wrong.

As for the first comment - beggars belief !
The second cooment - we are talking about collections from mail boxes not deliveries - durr!
If they lived and worked in the UK they might have a better insight.
Private courior services in the UK by their own figures are at least 20% less reliable than Royal Mail and on they don't compensate the posting customers.because they don't guarantee anything!

sounds, London, England

Having been a postal worker for 2 years i have seen who is to blame for the the inefficiency , and that has been the strategic policy makers in Royal Mail . Who can forget the Consignia fiasco , for instance ?Who can forget the near 20yr old pension contribution holiday that Royal Mail decided upon in the 80s and 90s ?Who can forget the wasteful re-structuring of the industry into separate businesses?
I joined when the British Post Office was able to deliver a first class service , management has destroyed it as a public service .

ajohnstone, Edinburgh , Scotland , UK

Cutting the collections by half means that mail could be left hanging out of the postboxes and easily stolen. Wait a minute you can then take the letter into the Post Office! Oh no sorry, they are all being transferred to WH Smiths!

Brian O'Connell, Liverpool, UK

Why are the post office even considering cost cutting when it involves compromising the service they provide? They need to remember that they exist as a national service and not as a profit -driven private company. If their more profitable services (e.g. red star) had not been sold off as cash cows in the past then I am sure they would not be having such a hard time making ends meet. We still have a world class postal service. Let's not see it destroyed on the altar of the profit god in the way that our water, power and transport systems have been destroyed. When this happens, alll that we end up with is a more expensive and less effective service, run by accountants for stockholders.

mark hardy, Liverpool, England

I cannot understand the competition arrangements. In my part of UK I get mail that has been processed by one of Royal Mail's competitors and then is delivered to my home by........ Royal Mail.

Alan Challoner, Anglesey, UK

Although I am self-employed and would be hard hit by any strike action, I am 100% behind the CWU and its members in its dispute with Royal Mail. They are being treated absolutely appallingly by an incompetent and backward-looking bunch of managers who appear to have no sense of loyalty to their employees. I am also appalled that the main post office in my town (Cheltenham) will close next year and a much-reduced service will operate from a small corner of the local branch of WH Smith! It's a preposterous idea - the queues are already long enough at the main post office - how on earth do they expect to be able to operate with a skeleton staff in WH Smith?? Does anyone bother to consult the customers? It's time these services were brought back under public control and the government paid a bit more to subsidise them (instead of wasting billions of pounds of our money on an illegal war in Iraq!).

James Paterson, Cheltenham, UK

The CWU is the last bastion of the rabid hard line Union power brigade, they are crippling Royal Mail with their intransigence, and will only wake up when ALL of their members are out of work because the business has gone down the tubes. At that point all the posties will be out in the market place looking for jobs only to find that they have no marketable skills other than the ability to walk, read and carry.

James, St Peter Port,

It should be of no surprise that the Post Office is losing money and customers, when even the government, through the HM Revenue & Customs sends items destined for overseas locations via the Swedish Post Office rather than its own. I received my latest letter from them this week through that route.

Stewart Aldcroft, Hong Kong,

Why in heavens name would any reasonable business person expect hard copy deliveries four times a day ?. Its just plain silly, let them strike, anf then fire them, then why not design a delvery system that fits the real needs...

wpo, warsaw, n.y.

The Government has demanded cuts. It is the Shareholder and simply using the Royal Mail as a stealth tax with the blessings of the EU

Once you could be proud of the Royal Mail but that was when Britain was a country and England was a nation....now it is simply a European Regional Entity

TomTom, Leeds, England

What Royal Mail really need to do is ensure their quality of service; this is the only thing that sets them apart from the rest of the delivery services. This will not be done by cost cutting. I supervised the night shift at a Parcelforce depot for ten months; if the extra paid to the night shift is taken out of the equation then an already demoralised workforce will not be inclined to help ensure this quality.

eddie, davis, california