D-Day for Royal Mail but wildcat strike action continues

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If bosses in the Communication Workers' Union decide to accept the agreement, the final decision will be left to a ballot of the union's 130,000 members.

Both sides in the dispute, which began in June, remain tight-lipped on the terms of the deal reached late on Friday evening.

But it is understood to include a reform of Royal Mail's pension scheme, a 2.5 per cent pay rise for workers this year and changes to working practices.

Postal workers continued with wildcat industrial action today, causing fresh disruption to mail deliveries despite a deal aimed at ending their long-running dispute.

Workers in Liverpool and part of London took unofficial industrial action for a fifth day, which will add to a backlog of mail in their areas.

Meanwhile the CWU has said Royal Mail's modernisation plans – which include the introduction of more flexible working patterns – could result in the loss of 40,000 jobs.

If the union and its members do not agree on the deal, workers may carry on with the next round of 24-hour strikes throughout this week.

Business and Enterprise Secretary John Hutton yesterday urged union leaders to accept the agreement.

'As Gordon Brown has said, there is no justification for this industrial action continuing,' he said. 'This is a sensible deal and I think everyone's hoping the union will agree this on Monday.'

Mr Hutton acknowledged that weeks of strike action, including wildcat walkouts, had done 'big damage' to Royal Mail, which is estimated to have lost more than £200million.

Most postal workers are expected to report for duty tomorrow. But they will be faced with a huge backlog of letters to sort and deliver.

Millions of businesses and families received no mail last week when a series of 48-hour stoppages and unofficial walkouts at more than 50 delivery offices and mail centre crippled the entire network.

The strike continued on Saturday at delivery offices in London and Liverpool, but it is thought staff in those cities will return to work by today or tomorrow.