Royal Mail made its “best and final offer” to striking workers, it was reported on Wednesday, ahead of the next strike of postal workers set to take place on Thursday and Friday.
The national postal operator, owned by the FTSE 250 company International Distribution Services, said the series of industrial action over recent weeks had cost it £100m so far.
According to the Evening Standard, the latest offer from the company included “extensive improvements” made during the latest round of negotiations with the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
It included a pay rise offer of up to 9% over 18 months, the development of a profit sharing scheme for employees, and improving its voluntary redundancy offer terms.
The company also said it would commit to making no compulsory redundancies for at least the next three months, and would offer to buy out a number of “legacy” allowances.
Sunday working would be voluntary, and the controversial introduction of later start and finish times would be staggered over three years.
Royal Mail also amended its seasonal working proposals, meaning employees would work around two hours less each week in summer, and two hours more in winter.
“Talks have lasted for seven months and we have made numerous improvements and two pay offers, which would now see up to a 9% pay increase over 18 months alongside a host of other enhancements,” said Royal Mail chief executive officer Simon Thompson.
“This is our best and final offer.
“Negotiations involve give and take, but it appears that the CWU’s approach is to just take.”
Thompson said the company wanted to reach a deal, but warned that time was “running out” for the CWU to change its position, and avoid further strike action on Thursday.
The CWU had not yet issued a formal response early on Wednesday afternoon, but its last update on the planned strikes on Twitter suggested they were still likely to go ahead.
“Warrington Mail Centre night shift have no confidence in Simon Thompson,” the union said at 0633 GMT, in the latest of a series of tweets showing staff in various Royal Mail locations standing by their decision to walk out on Thursday.
“Tomorrow, 115,000 postal workers will take strike action.”
At 1315 GMT, shares in International Distribution Services were down 2.13% at 239p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
