Royal Mail gives 'final warning' to unions

Royal Mail has privately threatened job cuts if the Communication Workers Union does not agree to join the fray in an increasingly bitter dispute about pay and modernization of the 506 year-old service.

Sources said that the CWU has been issued with a “final warning” over jobs after it refused to join talks with Acas. On September 22, the mail operator offered to go to arbitration. Yesterday, talks between the two sides ended in a stalemate.

Royal Mail employs 115,000 postal workers as frontline workers. In August, the CWU called for strikes. It announced this week that it would continue industrial action for 19 more days over the next two-months.

The dispute centers around pay. The dispute has resulted in a 2 percent pay increase for employees.