Four months have passed since the one-day stoppage by the CWU demanding the payment of the national wage agreement and to stop the closure of SDS.

The issues of pay and SDS was referred to the Labour Court with the agreement of the CWU leadership.

The main issue for all An Post staff is the payment of the 7% due under the national wage agreement, Sustaining Progress, that still hasn't been paid. A further 2% is due in August. So-called "independent" assessors are being brought in to look at the accounts of the company. It is then up to the company to prove that they cannot pay the increases. The position of the leading union, the CWU, is that An Post can afford to pay the wage increases. An Post currently has over €30 million available for what it calls "restructuring". They also sold foreign owned companies for over €85 million. However the company want to use these millions for redundancy programmes and further capital investments. The last thing they want to do is pay the staff their increases.

If the Labour Court decides that the company must pay up the 7%, it is likely that it will be in the context of asking the unions and the workers to make concessions on back pay. The concession could mean less back pay or none at all. Therefore the longer this process goes on, the more money the workforce will lose.

However many union members are still determined to get all the money that they are owed. They also believe that this is the position of the union leadership. If the Labour Court decides that An Post cannot "afford" to pay the 7% or if they decide that the workers must sacrifice all or a large proportion of their back money, then many postal workers will be enraged. Especially as the CWU leadership decided to go into binding arbitration instead of continuing with a campaign of industrial action to force the company to pay up.

While Socialist Party members argued against the Labour Court route, it is now a reality. The union leaderships should demand that a reasonable deadline should be set for the Labour Court decision and also prepare their members for industrial action should the Labour Court fail to deliver the 7% with full back pay.