The Postal Union is giving Royal Mail until Wednesday to open fresh negotiations on pay, working conditions and future plans for the business, or face a series of national strikes.
Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, will write to Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton and chief executive Adam Crozier tomorrow demanding a new round of talks over pay and the company's modernisation plans, which the CWU claims will cost 40,000 jobs.
Ward will say that last week's vote in favour of strike action demonstrates that Royal Mail workers have rejected the company's 2.5 per cent pay offer and its modernisation plan.
He will ask for urgent talks to discuss an above-inflation pay deal, moves to raise workers' pay over the next five years and the scaling back of modernisation plans.
These plans have yet to be published, but the CWU claims they will result in declining service standards as well as job losses for its members.
The union's postal executive meets on Wednesday to discuss its next move. It has 28 days from Thursday, when the ballot result was revealed, to announce any strike dates. It is likely that the CWU will call a series of one-day national stoppages to maximise disruption to the network.
Ward will point to the fact that 69,000 workers voted in favour of strike action, representing some 77 per cent of those who voted in the ballot.
A CWU source said: 'If Royal Mail has not responded by Wednesday, it will be likely that the postal executive will set some dates for action.'
Royal Mail has so far showed no sign of shifting its position. It points out that 127,000 people were balloted, and just over half voted.
Leighton has maintained the importance of driving through modernisation in the face of increased competition from the private operators that are eating into the market for bulk business mail.
Royal Mail is planning a major investment programme which would see increased mechanisation being brought into sorting offices, as well as changes to working practices. Unions fear this mechanisation will result in greatly reduced job numbers.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said the company was ready to talk to the union, but would not say whether it was prepared to reopen talks on the issues of pay and modernisation.