Both sides will come together for further talks.

Despite more than seven hours of talks between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail, a deal is yet to be reached which will avert the national postal strikes set to take place from Thursday.

Bosses from both sides were locked in discussions yesterday to try and reach a compromise in the dispute over pay, jobs and plans to modernise the postal service.

Although no deal was reached, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the talks had been productive and will continue today in the hope that a solution can be found.

"We've had useful talks but we're going to adjourn overnight to allow some work to be done on some of the issues involved," he stated.

Meanwhile, Dave Ward, deputy leader of the CWU, warned yesterday that there will be further problems for the postal service unless the government underwrites Royal Mail's £10 billion pensions deficit.

He said that the firm will not have a secure future when this issue remains unresolved, which may mean consumers will have to use the services of alternative parcel delivery companies such as Parcel2Go.com.

Written by Laura Pritchard


Article Added: 27/10/2009 09:26:33