Post strike peace deal

A dramatic deal to end the wildcat strike action by thousands of postal workers was agreed today.

But with more than 50 million items caught up in the backlog there was a warning that it could take weeks for deliveries to return to normal.

The surprise deal was announced early today following 15 hours of talks that had appeared to be heading for an impasse.

The peace package, however, is fragile and leaders of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will now make urgent appeals to those leading the wildcat walkouts not to stage any further action.

Because the union must not, for legal reasons, recognise or support the strikers it cannot order them to return to work.

Unofficial action by 20,000 workers in London and thousands more outside the capital has caused irreparable damage to Royal Mail with customers such as Tesco switching to a private mail company. Others are also threatening to do the same.

Losses to Royal Mail will run into tens of millions of pounds. The company was desperate to reach an agreement before the wildcat strikes ran out of control with more walkouts.

London usually handles nearly 20 million items of post a day - a third of all Britain's post also passes through the capital leading to delays nationwide. Businesses have been thrown into chaos with bills unpaid and orders not met or received.

The long-running dispute over pay and changes to working conditions - one of the key causes of the walkouts - is not over and there will be weeks of further talks before agreement is reached on that.

The two sides will continue discussions at Acas, the conciliation service. The deal to end the unofficial stoppages came at 3.30am today.

Neither side would enter into detail, but issued a joint statement: "The Royal Mail and the CWU are both pleased to have reached an understanding that allows both parties to recommend a return to work.

"We will be talking to our people today and will now go to Acas to resolve all outstanding issues relating to pay and major change.

"We wish to apologise to customers for the huge inconvenience that has been caused and our first priority is to clear the backlog that has built up and get the service back to normal." Nearly half London's 10,000 postboxes were sealed as a result of the wildcat strikes. These are expected to remain sealed while the backlog of post is cleared.

It is understood that a deal was reached after Royal Mail agreed to hold back on implementing some modernisation changes, which led to the walkouts, until formal agreement is reached.

Nor will it take disciplinary or any other action against those employees who took part in the walkouts unless they are found guilty of intimidating others to take part. Billy Hayes, the CWU leader, would only say that an "understanding" had been reached with Royal Mail.

Roger Barnes, Royal Mail head of operations, had stressed there were no barriers to people coming back to work. He said: "There are no punitive measures - we just want to get customer service back and make sure that our national agreements with the union are stuck to."

Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton and Mr Hayes joined the talks last night and helped achieve the breakthrough.

Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, also joined the talks over the weekend. He emerged alongside CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward to announce that a deal had been reached. There had been optimism that an agreement would be reached yesterday but this faded as the day wore on and it was clear there were major problems.

The dispute started after a number of drivers in Southall were suspended following a row in the aftermath of an official 24-hour strike in London over allowances. The union accused Royal Mail of bullying and intimidating workers and of trying to force through changes to working practices.

Royal Mail denied the charge and hit back at the union, blaming activists for spreading the dispute.

Huge resentment among workers remains over the pay issue. In September staff from across the UK narrowly voted against national strikes.

At the same time, however, a second ballot among workers in London overwhelmingly endorsed industrial action for an increase in allowances - London weighting - for working in the capital.

There have already been two official stoppages in London - it was after the second stoppage at the start of last month that Royal Mail ordered drivers at the Southall depot to carry out work the union maintains they were not trained to do.

They refused and were suspended, along with another driver at Greenford.

As the backlog of mail started to build-up because of the walkouts Royal Mail redirected post to other depots - staff there protested and they in turn walked out.

The Royal Mail said that there had been an "orchestrated campaign" behind the action - though this was denied by the CWU.