Further talks aimed at preventing the first national postal strike in over a decade have broken down, it has emerged.

A meeting yesterday between Royal Mail and workers' representatives collapsed without any progress being made, the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) said.

Last week the union announced that it intended to hold a 24-hour strike on Friday in response to job and pay cuts at Royal Mail.

Disgruntled postal workers have also indicated that they are prepared to stage further industrial action a fortnight later if their dispute with Royal Mail is not resolved.

A CWU spokeswoman confirmed that yesterday's talks - facilitated by arbitration group Acas - had not resulted in any new concessions from Royal Mail, which is proposing a 2.5 per cent pay offer for its staff.

She added that there had been "no meaningful discussions" between the two parties during the proceedings.

Royal Mail claims that it is having to modernise the postal service in order to keep up with competitors, but the CWU insists that the organisation's bosses are intent on cutting services, jobs and pay.

Speaking last week CWU deputy general-secretary Dave Ward accused Royal Mail chiefs of "deliberately misleading" behaviour over the dispute and stressed that the union had never sought a 27 per cent pay rise for its members.

But Royal Mail, which says it has "well-developed" contingency plans to reduce disruption in the event of a strike, maintains that it is losing business because it has failed to change its practices.

Meanwhile it has been claimed that Royal Mail could be given permission by the postal regulator to cut deliveries from six to five days a week in order to make the organisation more competitive.

Postcomm chief executive Sarah Chambers told a London conference yesterday that insisting on a Saturday delivery could lead to higher prices for other services in order to maintain the universal service obligation, the Financial Times newspaper reports.

"There are other ways to deliver a service to customers in far-flung areas than insisting on a six-day-a-week service," Ms Chambers was quoted as saying at the event organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

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