Royal Mail postal workers begin fresh two-day strike

Postal workers at Royal Mail have begun a fresh 48-hour strike in a row over pay and conditions.

It is the latest in a series of walkouts involving 115,000 postal workers and will affect deliveries of letters and parcels across the UK.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the workers, says its members want a pay rise that matches the surging cost of living.

Royal Mail said it had tabled a revised offer but "no talks are happening".

Postal workers walked out on Thursday and Friday last week, and another wave of strikes is planned in the run-up to Christmas - on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.

Clara Challoner Walker, who runs the Cosy Cottage Soap Company in Malton, Yorkshire, said the strikes were having a "significant impact" on her business.

She uses Royal Mail because it is too expensive to send her relatively small soap and skincare orders via couriers.

However, she says strikes are delaying deliveries and could damage the business during the "critical" Christmas trading period, when it makes most of its profits.

"We do feel sympathy for the [Royal Mail workers]," she told the BBC. "But I would question the bosses and the union bosses as to whether striking at this time of year, which is going to have such a significant impact on small businesses, is achieving what they are looking to achieve."

On strike days Royal Mail will not be able to deliver first and second class letters. However, it will deliver as many parcels and Special Delivery letters as possible, giving priority to medical prescriptions where possible.

The dispute began this summer after Royal Mail rejected demands for a pay rise that matched the surging cost of living.

Inflation - the rate at which prices rises - is currently running at 11.1% , its highest in 41 years, as the cost of food and energy goes up.

The union also objects to proposed changes to working conditions, such as ending a number of allowances and the introduction of compulsory Sunday working.

The postal service has since offered a pay deal that it says is worth up to 9% over 18 months, calling it its "best and final offer".

However, CWU general secretary Dave Ward said that offer represented a "devastating blow" to postal workers' livelihoods and urged the public to "stand with their postie".

"Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect," he said on Tuesday.

In a statement, he added that postal workers wanted to "get on with serving the communities they belong to" and tackling the backlog of presents and Christmas cards that has built up in recent weeks.

Sam Smith runs Pot Gang, which sells grow-your-own vegetable and herb boxes online. The firm uses Royal Mail to send hundreds of orders to customers every day, but he said it used more expensive courier companies on strike days to prevent deliveries being delayed.

"The general public generally aren't too forgiving when it comes to deliveries," he told the BBC. "It creates a bit of a customer service headache for us."

Mr Smith said he sympathised with the striking workers but that "ultimately Royal Mail is a business and has to deal with businesses".

The risk to the postal service, he added, was that firms like his would stop using Royal Mail.

"We need to know that things will be arriving reliably and on time for a fair price [this Christmas]," he added.

Royal Mail has been struggling as it moves from its traditional business of delivering letters - which is no longer profitable - to the fast-growing world of parcel deliveries.

The company, which faces fierce competition from courier companies, says it is losing around a million pounds a day and cannot afford to give its workers a higher pay rise.

It said the strikes have added £100m to its losses, and has announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs.

As well as improving its offer to workers, the company says it has promised more generous redundancy terms and a profit-sharing scheme.

Earlier this month, it asked the government to allow it to stop letter deliveries on Saturdays as it reported a loss for the first half of the year.

It wants to move from a six-days-a-week letter delivery to five, from Monday to Friday only. However, parcel services would continue to run all days of the week.