Fresh dispute in lead-up to postal strike
As An Post workers prepare to down tools and march on Dáil Eireann on Wednesday, the Labour Relations Commission was seeking to reach agreement on a deal to restore postal services in Galway.
More than 100,000 items of mail were left unsorted in the Galway region after the latest dispute between the two sides emerged yesterday.
Although workers resumed sorting mail as talks continued yesterday, LRC talks were adjourned yesterday evening without agreement and will resume this morning.
In the latest dispute An Post is claiming the Communications Worker’s Union (CWU) is seeking payment for unnecessary work while the CWU insists its members should be paid the same as last year under a Christmas overtime agreement signed last month.
CWU official Sean McDonagh accused An Post of breaking November’s overtime agreement.
“This is something that should not be happening. It’s nothing really to do with Wednesday but it’s a symptom of the way things are at the moment,” he said.
However, a spokesman for An Post accused the CWU of seeking payments for non-existent work and said payments could not be the same as last year since a new mail centre in Athlone meant there was actually less work this year. “We’re not going to pay overtime for phantom work. There just isn’t the same level of work as in the past,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a statement released last night CWU general secretary Steve Fitzpatrick said he was concerned the public had been misinformed about tomorrow’s strike.
Mr Fitzpatrick said it was primarily aimed at securing payment of an overdue Sustaining Progress pay rise of €22.50 due to almost 10,000 employees.
