Over 700 postal sorters at the Dublin Mail Centre are being offered pay rises worth an extra £4,000 a year on average under a new annualised hours deal. This will boost salaries to between £26,000 and £36,000 a year.
By the end of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness earnings for full-time staff will range from £26,191 to £37,928 a year. Part-time staff on a 26-hour roster will be earning £15,916.
Other perks include full annualised hours salaries for staff on jury service, transport home outside public transport operating times, a week's bonus at Christmas and another week at the start of the summer holidays.
The deal should also mean a shorter working week for staff. Currently most permanent staff work 48 hours, including overtime. They will now be required to work 43 "core" hours and be liable for a further five.
However, they will be able to leave the DMC once work loads are completed, even if they have not completed the required "core hours". This unused time will be written off at the end of each calendar year.
The Communications Workers' Union general secretary, Mr Con Scanlon, said yesterday the deal was the biggest of its kind negotiated anywhere in the EU mail system. If accepted by members it would provide "a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week demand-driven service that will protect jobs and improve working conditions."
It would also cover untypical part-time employees who will benefit by about £1 an hour extra from the new schedules.
Because of low basic pay in the past DMC sorters have relied heavily on overtime. As a result pensionable earnings averaged £21,500 a year. Under the new deal, the ceiling for full-time staff will range from £25,184 to £30,500.
Mr Scanlon said this would mean an enormous improvement in living standards for staff when they retired. He added that the deal would also give members control over the rate of automation and the way in which the Working Time Act, which puts a cap of 48 hours on the working week, was introduced in An Post.
The branch secretary, Mr Brian Shanny, said the negotiating committee was unanimously recommending the package. Voting begins on July 14th to allow joint union-management presentations of the details. It will conclude in early August.