POST OFFICE: PAY DISPUTE 2021/22

POST OFFICE: PAY DISPUTE 2021/22

After ten months of complete silence from Post Office, they have now come clean and told their employees there will be a pay freeze for 2021/22. This communication from Angela Williams, Group Chief People Officer, is attached for information.

In essence, the excuses proffered for a pay freeze are:

The Government’s pay freeze policy for public sector workers
The retail trading environment of Post Office

Neither of these claims hold up to scrutiny and as such are spurious. By Post Office’s own admission, they are just “mindful” of the shareholders’ position “when we make our ownpay decisions”. This proves the pay freeze is not a Government requirement and Post Office is attempting to hide behind Government’s flawed policies. They have defeated their own arguments by admitting Post Office is not obliged to follow Government policy.

Despite the pandemic, we understand Post Office will declare a reasonably healthy profit once it finally publishes its 2020/21 Annual Report & Accounts. Indeed, our members are acutely aware Post Offices remained open throughout the lockdowns when most other high street retailers were closed. Basically, Post Office can afford to provide our members with a good pay rise and their excuses are absolutely hollow. In fact, Post Office has consistently failed, including during the Acas talks, to provide any financial evidence to warrant the pay freeze policy and their communication fails to legitimise their stance and therefore in the absence of any real justification, the corporate jargon is utterly meaningless.

Evidently, the above proves there is no case for a pay freeze policy and that is why it is necessary for our members to deliver a Yes vote in the forthcoming strike ballot.

A CWU web article on Post Office’s pay freeze position can be accessed via: