ALL Royal Mail deliveries and collections will be shut down in Scotland during four days of strike action, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) warned today.

The union says services will be disrupted as a result of the industrial action, set to take place on August 26 and 31 as well as September 8 and 9 in a dispute over pay.

Royal Mail says workers have been offered a 5.5 per cent rise, but the CWU says this is untrue.

The union's Scottish regional secretary Craig Anderson told BBC Radio Scotland today that negotiations had broken down.

“We’re taking this action because we’ve been given no other option,” he said. “The negotiations started in February regarding a pay rise for the workers within Royal Mail and the negotiations have broken down.

“They’ve imposed a 2 per cent pay award without agreement.

“They offered another 1.5 per cent based on signing away terms and conditions and a further £500 as a bonus for having targets that they knew weren’t achievable. 

“So there was never a 5.5 per cent pay offer put on the table.”

He called on Royal Mail to sit back round the table and look at where members are at regarding the cost-of-living crisis.

CWU is among several unions taking strike action this summer in demands for increased pay offers for workers in light of the rising cost of living.

The union also has an ongoing pay dispute with BT.

Mr Anderson said it would be difficult to come to an acceptable figure due to the uncertainty surrounding inflation, which now stands at 9.4 per cent.

“The difficulty we have is we don’t know where inflation will be tomorrow, never mind where it will be in six months’ time," he said.

“Our members don’t want to go on strike, but we’ve been given no other choice. 

“We’re at gridlock at the moment and, as I say, we’d be quite happy to sit back round the table to discuss a pay offer.”

Royal Mail claimed the CWU has failed to engage in discussions on changes that bosses say are needed to “modernise” the company such as Sunday working as standard, extended overnight windows and flexible hours such as reduced hours during the summer and extended hours at the busy Christmas period.

A spokesman said: “Industrial action is a significant act of self-harm.”