CWU Young Workers: Consultative Ballot

Consultative Ballot – PFSL Members

The CWU Postal Executive has rejected the PFSL pay offer as being inadequate as it doesn’t match the Real Living Wage for our Cleaning Members and it doesn’t make any progress on key policies including the critical issue of Pensions. Consequently, the Postal Executive has determined that we should engage with the members in a Consultative Ballot.

The Consultative Ballot will have the following 2 questions:

Do you support the CWU rejection of the PFSL pay offer?
Do you support the CWU policy for PFSL members to join the Collective Plan pension scheme?

We need all members to participate in the consultative ballot and we need members, for their own benefit, to vote YES & YES to send a strong signal to PFSL/Royal Mail management that we are not prepared to accept half measures and poor pay, and pensions.

Click the drop down sections below to find out more information. Check back regularly for further updates as the campaign develops.

Why YES & YES?

Delivering two massive YES votes, with a great turnout, will place pressure on PFSL/Royal Mail to return to negotiations with a better offer, and potentially a plan for pension equality and fairness.

Negotiations Thus Far

Real Living Wage – we have rejected £13.38 per hour for Cleaners, as this is 7p shy per hour of the Real Living Wage, which is £13.45. PFSL/Royal Mail can easily afford 7p extra for all Cleaners. Clearly, the attempt to not pay the Real Living Wage is a decision to move away from previous arrangements now and in the future, and if we were to give up on this principle on this occasion, we will struggle to match the Real Living Wage in future years.

Pensions – unfortunately we have made no progress on the issue of equity for pensions, which means that PFSL members are 2^nd class citizens in comparison to all other Royal Mail employees. This is unfair as our PFSL members are losing out on the Employer contribution of 13.6%.

Real Living Wage for Cleaners £13.45 versus PFSL offer of £13.38

The Living Wage Foundation is due to announce its new hourly pay rate in late October. Our key objective will be to ensure Cleaners receive this hourly pay rate from April 2027. If we don’t secure £13.45 per hour this year, we won’t get anywhere near the new 2027 Real Living Wage rate, and the difference will quickly be greater than 7p per hour.

Collective Plan 13.6% Employer Contribution versus current Pension arrangements

PFSL currently pays just 4%, 5% or 7% into the pension schemes that are in place for PFSL members. This figure will depend on whether PFSL members are in the NEST scheme or the L&G DC scheme and which Tier they are in. Whereas, all other employees of Royal Mail, including all managers, receive the benefit of 13.6% of their salary being paid into the Collective Plan by Royal Mail.

These arrangements are grossly unfair and will disadvantage PFSL members significantly in the long term and will mean that many members won’t be able to afford to retire and will have to work until they die. The current arrangements will definitely create pensioner poverty, especially for the lowest paid members across the Cleaning grades. All we are seeking is equalisation and fairness by ensuring that PFSL members are treated exactly the same as everyone else across Royal Mail.

Pay for Engineers

The 3% pay offer for Engineers is broadly acceptable as it matches the 3% achieved for all other grades across Royal Mail. However, we need to ensure the 3% flows through to the call-out allowance and all other allowances and overtime rates.

£200 Christmas Bonuses

All Operational grades in Royal Mail receive £200 Christmas bonuses and it is high time that our Cleaning and Engineering members received this benefit as well. Everyone needs extra money at Christmas time and why should Cleaners and Engineers be disadvantaged in comparison to all other Operational grades.

Priority: Two Year Pay Agreement

Our primary objective is to conclude a pay agreement for 2026 as soon as possible. However, because we are now in September, and it has taken us over six months to get to this position, bearing in mind the union lodged the pay claim back in March, an option is to reach a two-year Pay Agreement to include the pay increase from April 2027. PFSL members have waited long enough for this year’s Agreement; therefore, we want to get in front of this situation by addressing next year’s Pay Agreement in one package. This will provide certainty for our PFSL members as we approach 2027.

Next Steps

Members voting YES & YES in this consultative ballot, this will enable us to return to negotiations with the strong voice of our members behind us. This will demonstrate that PFSL members are not prepared to be treated in an inferior way to all other Royal Mail employees.

By voting YES & YES, PFSL/Royal Mail management will have to sit up and listen and take onboard the legitimate concerns of our PFSL members and they won’t be able to ignore two massive YES votes.