UNDERPAID Post Office workers are preparing for further national industrial action on Wednesday, just hours after more staff at Royal Mail overwhelmingly backed strikes over “shabby” treatment by bosses.

Walkouts have hit various sectors nationwide in recent months, as real-terms pay cuts and soaring inflation causes living standards to decline at their fastest rate since the 1950s. 

About 3,500 Post Office workers will down tools for another 24-hour strike in a long-running dispute sparked by a significantly below-inflation pay offer.

The state-run firm’s salary proposal currently stands at 5 per cent plus £500 cash — around half the lowest rate of inflation recorded last month.

The walkout comes just a day after Royal Mail’s vital cleaners and engineers voted for strikes by a whopping 93.5 per cent on a massive turnout of more than 66 per cent.

The result, which smashed an arbitrary 50 per cent turnout threshold imposed by the Tories, “sends a loud and clear message to management that selfishness doesn't pay,” stressed Andy Furey of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents staff at both companies.

The union warned that Royal Mail cleaners have had no pay rise at all this year, while engineers and admin members have been offered the same 2 per cent wage boost imposed across the Royal Mail Group this spring. 

The formerly semi-outsourced workers were brought fully back in-house in 2016, but negotiations over pay, terms and conditions have continued to run separately from other staff at the company.

This year’s pay offer has already sparked a separate dispute at the firm involving 115,000 CWU members, who are due to withdraw their labour again for 48 hours from Friday.

As well as pay, the union is seeking parity for the cleaners and engineers with the rest of the group’s employees in key areas such as pensions, leave entitlement, average holiday pay and paid maternity and paternity leave. 

General secretary Dave Ward said: “I congratulate our members in overcoming the company’s propaganda and standing with their colleagues.

“During the pandemic, these workers were vital for the functioning of society.

“Now they are being treated with complete and utter contempt. It’s a familiar story in Britain today.”

He stressed that there is real anger for cleaners in particular after bosses confirmed they would not offer any salary increase to employees who received a real living wage adjustment in April, despite a “promise made in an agreement between management and the CWU to not link the two.”

Mr Furey, the union’s deputy general secretary, added: “During the pandemic, Royal Mail cleaners and engineers were every bit as crucial as front-line workers.

“Their essential cleaning, repair and maintenance work kept workplaces safe and functioning.

“Since then, it’s shameful that they’ve been treated so shabbily and it’s no wonder they’re angry.

“But we will turn this anger into action, and these cleaners and engineers will fight every step of the way for what they’re owed.”

The Post Office has said that its “preference remains an accord with the CWU that will see an end to strike action,” while Royal Mail has claimed that its 2022-23 pay offer actually amounts to 5.5 per cent, a suggestion strongly rejected by the union.

The firm was contacted for comment over today’s vote for strike action.