Labour Court ruling clears way for normal post

THE way was finally cleared for a full resumption of postal services last night as both sides in the postal dispute accepted a Labour Court recommendation aimed at restoring services to the public as soon as possible.

The Labour Court ruling also clears the way for substantive Labour Relations Commission (LRC) talks - currently suspended - to recommence on Monday week.

LRC talks were stalled on Tuesday after two days of discussions failed to see agreement on overtime payments required to clear a massive backlog in the mail system.

However, despite last night's breakthrough it will still be two weeks before the backlog of mail resulting from the dispute is cleared and services begin to return to normal.

CWU national officer Sean McDonald last night welcomed the Labour Court recommendation which stressed that both parties had a responsibility to clear any backlog and restore services to the public. “We are looking forward now to getting down to work and entering substantive talks in two weeks.”

Mr McDonald welcomed the fact that last night's agreement left the existing terms of the LRC talks intact.

“From our point of view we are concerned that the existing agreement remain protected,” he said.

It is understood that under the terms of the court's ruling An Post workers will be paid an hour and three quarters overtime a day until the backlog is cleared. While the CWU had sought two hours overtime, An Post workers would usually receive up to four hours overtime during the busy Christmas period.

An Post's Larry Donald said last night's ruling was extremely important for the company in that it established the right of An Post to implement plans to deal with particular circumstances instead of being forced into expensive seasonal arrangements.

Mr Donald said the next phase of substantive LRC talks would be a difficult set of negotiations. “The work practices that prevail in An Post are very deeply ingrained but they will have to change given the financial state of affairs at the company,” he said.

Although day-to-day postal services are now operating normally, last night's agreement envisages that the backlog of mail and the massive amount of held-back letters will not be cleared until the 23rd of this month.

While 1.3 million letters were sorted through the Dublin system yesterday, arrangements agreed to last night will see that figure rise to 1.8 million items a day for the next two weeks.