A mediator has been appointed for crucial talks aimed at averting a strike by Royal Mail workers in a dispute over pay, pensions and other issues.
Professor Lynette Harris, a member of a panel of independent arbitrators at the conciliation service Acas, will mediate between the Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union (CWU).
A planned 48-hour strike by the union last week was halted after the Royal Mail took legal action.
With @asgharlab and Terry Cavanagh at the Commons today discussing Royal Mail and the threat to #Holbeckdeliveryoffice @CWUnews #CWU pic.twitter.com/zeSaXZyq6F
— Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) October 24, 2017
Royal Mail said it was pleased to be entering a new phase of talks, which will be led by its chief executive Moya Greene.
“Our priority is to reach agreement with the CWU. We are committed to using the mediation process to do just that.
“Mediation will bring both parties together, with a third party, to seek the right outcome for employees, customers and the business.
Royal Mail is an important national institution – it doesn't deserve to be the run down service it has become. I support our postal workers pic.twitter.com/ZnyxS5VGET
— Theresa Griffin MEP (@TheresaMEP) October 24, 2017
“In total, the procedures allow seven weeks for negotiations from the appointment of a mediator.
“If we do not reach agreement, the union is required by law to give a minimum of two weeks’ notice of any industrial action after mediation has finished.
“This means that the process will take close to Christmas to be completed, and may be longer.
“Given the complexity of the issues under discussion and the shared appetite to reach agreement, we anticipate that discussions could be extended to facilitate an agreement,” said a statement.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here