The Government has received a fresh blow to its controversial plans to privatise the Royal Mail after workers at Parcelforce massively rejected the move.
Almost 3500 members of the Communication Workers Union voted in a consultative ballot by more than nine to one against any sell-off of the Royal Mail Group, of which they are a part.
The turnout was 72%, with 95% supporting the union's stance on pay and pensions at Parcelforce.
The union has warned it will ballot workers at Royal Mail over pay, pensions and other issues linked to privatisation if no agreement is reached soon.
Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "Workers in Parcelforce have spoken loud and clear and added their voices to those of hundreds of thousands of others - they are against Royal Mail privatisation.
"There is a consistent message from both the workforce and the public that privatisation is not needed, not supported and not popular. It's time the Government looked at alternatives to privatisation - something we can help them with.
"They've got it wrong on this subject and the company's propaganda has failed to change the minds of those who work in the business."
Parcelforce said in a statement: "We have not received a formal pay claim from the CWU however talks are in place, with the focus on the scope and length of the deal. We are committed to concluding a deal as soon as possible so that employees can feel the benefit."
On privatisation, the company added: "The current legal position is that all the terms and conditions that apply to Royal Mail Group employees, including those working for Parcelforce Worldwide, would remain in place, on the same basis
"To provide further reassurance, Royal Mail Group wants to create a three-year, legally-binding contract with the CWU."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article