MORE than a thousand posties across York and North Yorkshire are set to receive a £400 bonus in April - if unions and Royal Mail management can reach agreement on new flexible working arrangements.

Union leaders held their first meeting with the company yesterday, with the unions confident that a deal can be reached.

Dave Dowling, secretary of the York and District branch of the Communication Workers Union, said local talks were being organised in the wake of the national agreement reached last autumn, which included the principle of greater flexibility.

The agreement ended a period of strikes which crippled deliveries and led to a huge backlog of mail building up in York.

Mr Dowling said postmen had already changed their daily start times late last year, with most workers in York switching from the traditional 5am to 6am.

The talks were all about how flexibility could be improved within local units, such as York Central and York West.

Mr Dowling said: "It is about staff patterns, about dealing with unexpected events such as extra mail or floods.

"It is about improving the service but also about improving the work-life balance for staff.

"It is a two-way street. We are working together with the management to try to reach agreement in the next few weeks, with a £400 bonus for each member in April if agreement is reached.

"We will be consulting with members if we reach an agreement."

He said about 600 staff based in York, including both postal delivery workers and sorting staff, would receive the bonus, along with approximately another 700 workers across the rest of North Yorkshire, within the YO postcode.

He said the union was subsequently set to enter talks with the company nationally to discuss ideas for improving the company in future.

A Royal Mail spokesman said the company talked regularly with the CWU, and one of its key challenges was to modernise and improve its efficiency so it could "compete more successfully in the face of intensifying competition in the mails market".

The agreement reached nationally with the union in the autumn, which covered flexibility and modernisation, also included the potential for each member of staff to earn up to £800 from the Colleague Share scheme this year, made up of £400 in Colleague Shares and £400 if group-wide targets are met."