Mediator Flynn to tackle postal dispute

LEADING industrial relations mediator Phil Flynn will attempt to break the deadlock in the worsening dispute between 540 rural postmasters and An Post.

Mr Flynn has offered to chair a Dublin meeting between representatives of the Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) and An Post in a bid to secure a compromise deal in the dispute which has escalated over the last two weeks.

The dispute centres on the postmasters' demand for more pay to provide their premises for sorting post and also for supervising the job.

They currently get €2 an hour for the job before 8am and are demanding substantially more.

An Post does not accept that the 540 rural sub-postmasters should be treated on the same basis as their employees, who get €12 an hour for sorting post.

These postmasters work on contract for An Post, providing a service that is not their sole income and run in conjunction with businesses, a company spokesman said.

Both An Post and the IPU said yesterday they are hopeful today's talks will bring some breakthrough in the dispute.

"These talks offer the best prospect of a resolution to this difficult dispute and we will be taking them very seriously," An Post spokesman John Foley said.

The IPU is also hopeful the talks with Mr Flynn will help to resolve the dispute. "We are hoping that some positive proposals will be put on the table that we can recommend to our members," IPU general secretary John Kane said.

The dispute has escalated over the past two weeks since the rural postmasters have stopped post-men and -women using their premises to sort post on Mondays and Fridays.

This prompted An Post to stop the postmen and women sorting their post in the rural post offices on the remaining days of the week.

Meanwhile, postmasters continued to protest in the West yesterday with 20 demonstrating outside the central sorting office in Galway city and 12 outside Ballina post office in County Mayo.

The second protest caused a delay in postal deliveries in rural North Mayo because the dispute started at 3am and no mail trucks passed the picket.

The protest was called off at 9.30am.

Angry postmaster Tom Rowland said they had no choice but to take action because of what he claimed was An Post's contempt for them.

"Instead of trying to alleviate this ongoing dispute, An Post has upped the ante by keeping the postmen away from us," Mr Rowland added.