Crown Post Office in Sheffield among scores shut as staff strike over pay

Some 114 Crown branches will close for 24 hours including in Wilko, Haymarket, in Sheffield city centre. There will also be no cash deliveries or collections from the UK’s 11,500 sub-post offices, which remain open.

The Communication Workers Union says the strike is over a pay freeze for 2021 and the offer of a two per cent increase from April this year, alongside a £250 one-off lump sum.

Officials said this was “exceptionally poor”, especially as RPI inflation has reached nine per cent.

Some 97.3 per cent of members, on a 70.2 per cent turnout, voted to take action.

CWU Assistant Secretary Andy Furey said the dispute was due to a ‘power play’ by management aimed at antagonising staff.

He added: “Post Office management are insisting they are simply following government policy on public sector pay policy.

“But they have repeatedly contradicted themselves, and have also said that it’s their decision to impose a pay freeze.

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“We know the Post Office has turned over huge profits in these past few years – management can afford to provide our members with a reasonable pay increase if they wanted.

“This is not an issue of affordability. This is about power play from a management that is needlessly antagonising its key worker employees. The attitude of Post Office needs to be viewed in the context of inflation rising by at least nine per cent already this year.

“Our members don’t appreciate being taken for fools, which is why they have voted in massive numbers for strike action.

“To avoid more disruption to services this year, the CWU urges Post Office to get round the bargaining table and thrash out a settlement with us that treats our key worker heroes with the respect they deserve.”

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A Post Office spokesperson said: “We have been notified by the CWU that they have instructed their members to take strike action on Tuesday May 3.

“We want to assure our customers that the vast majority of our 11,500 branches are unaffected by this decision and will remain open throughout the day.”

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