POST OFFICE bosses are under growing pressure to offer staff a “richly deserved” pay rise after Communication Workers Union (CWU) members voted overwhelmingly to strike.

More than 97 per cent backed walkouts in a recent ballot with a turnout of about 70 per cent, the union announced on Monday evening.

Deliveries of parcels and cash to and from Britain’s 11,500 sub-post offices will be disrupted if the industrial action goes ahead, the CWU said, calling on management to “break the deadlock and end their unjustified pay freeze.”

Strike dates will be set if bosses fail to table an “acceptable proposal or an offer of meaningful negotiations,” the CWU warned. 

Assistant secretary Andy Furey said that the strike vote expressed the “anger and frustration” of workers who are being “undervalued, once again, by a misguided and out-of-touch employer.”

He added: “We may have no choice but to take action as our members are facing the highest inflation in decades.

“The way [management] are treating our hard-working members is disgraceful.”

A Post Office spokesperson said: “The vote for ‘yes’ means that the CWU now have a mandate to call industrial action. To do so, they will need to give Post Office 14 days’ notice of the date they intend to strike.”