9:55am UK, Wednesday April 24, 2002

Postal workers across the UK will stage a national strike next month unless a dispute over deliveries is resolved.

sl consignia post mailman.jpg

The threatened 24-hour walkout on May 8 would be the first nationwide stoppage since 1996 and would cause a fresh crisis for loss-making postal group Consignia.

Talks aimed at averting the action are expected to be held today between officials from the Communication Workers Union and the company.

Massive changes

The union claims delivery staff are being asked to agree "massive changes" in working conditions.

These would leave postmen and women working for more than four hours without a break, it says.

The dispute is also holding up long-running negotiations over pay, which led to an offer of a 6.9% increase.

The union points out 2.2% of the offer covers agreement on longer delivery spans, but it argues that this element should be separated from any pay rise.

The talks, at the concilation service ACAS, are a "last ditch" attempt to find a solution, it says.