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The year before the figure was 63000 and in 1994-95 it was 38000

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The year before the figure was 63,000 and in 1994-95 it was 38,000. In the nine months to the end of December only 1,761 days had been lost, he said.The spokesman confirmed that negotiations over team-working had come to a halt, but said the Post Office kept in contact with the union. Management was still keen to discuss new working methods and productivity with the CWU. "We hope we will be talking soon," he said.Having taken it to task over the management of employees, the report ventured that the Post Office could now "reasonably look forward" to obtaining some of the commercial freedom it was seeking. "There is mutual suspicion and frustration at the inability to reach an agreement on the matters which led to the very damaging 1996 industrial action," the report said.A spokesman for the Post Office insisted that there had been a "dramatic improvement" in labour relations and that industrial action at the organisation now accounted for about one-fifth of all days lost through strikes. The document, however, adds: "A demonstrable and sustained improvement in industrial relations is required for the Post Office to be able to enjoy the anticipated benefits of the commercial freedom it seeks."Industrial relations at the organisation were described as "poor" and the committee said that the problems should be addressed with urgency.

The Post Office has quietly abandoned its plan to introduce team-working for delivery and sorting staff, the issue at the centre of eight damaging 24-hour strikes. Despite a demand by management that employees' leaders should discuss the issue as part of the settlement of the dispute, no consensus has emerged and after 18 months the talks have run into the sand. Meanwhile, management has been involved in scores of industrial skirmishes with the Communication Workers' Union at a local level, although management argues that the atmosphere has improved considerably in recent months.In a report published yesterday the all-party Commons Trade and Industry Committee repeated a call for the Post Office to remain in public hands and reiterated its view that it should enjoy more scope to raise money and compete in new markets. That would mean a five-month delay will cost an extra pounds 200m, bringing the total bill for the exercise to more than pounds 1bn. The electricity regulator has allowed the Recs to pass on only pounds 500m of the costs to customers.Mr Battle said he was "not pleased" that customers were having to wait longer for competition to arrive but said it would have been irresponsible and irrational to press ahead with incomplete or partially tested computer systems.. Labour relations at the Post Office are 'nothing short of a disaster', with the organisation accounting for an amazing two-thirds of all industrial action in Britain, according to ministers. MPs believe its strike record could be the biggest barrier to it exploiting the commercial freedom that was yesterday promised by the Government Barrie Clement, Labour Editor, reports.

The Recs claims that while they will be barred from doing anything other than providing information to gas customers, Centrica will be able to sign up households to cheaper electricity in readiness for the opening of the market.Meanwhile, electricity chiefs also told Mr Battle that for every week the launch of domestic competition is delayed it will cost them an extra pounds 10m in preparing their computer systems. Five of the country's 14 electricity suppliers served notice last night that they would not comply with the request from Ofgas and Offer to stop selling gas until their own franchise markets are open to competition. Eastern, the country's largest regional electricity company (Rec) and biggest independent gas supplier, went one step further by calling for a Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquiry into the matter.The dispute has arisen because Centrica, the trading arm of British Gas, will see its monopoly disappear entirely this May or June while the electricity market will not be fully open to competition nationwide until June, 1999.Centrica has argued that this gives the Recs an unfair advantage by enabling them to attack its market while theirs remain closed. "There is no sign of a sharp slowdown."Richard Iley at ABN Amro said the forward-looking indicators suggested the economy would slow, but recruitment difficulties and pay pressures formed an inflationary "black cloud".Analysts will look for more clues in today's official figures for GDP in the final quarter of last year.. In services planned employment and investment also fell back sharply.Ian Peters, deputy director general of the BCC, said: "This survey suggests the economy may now be at a turning point, and the Bank of England must take care to apply due weight to the economic expectations of the business community when making future decisions on interest rates."However, the gloomier camp of City economists reckoned there was still not enough evidence to rule out a further increase in interest rates from the current level of 7.25 per cent, either next month or in March.Mark Wall at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell said manufacturing was showing no sign of undue stress from sterling's strength and services were continuing to power ahead. Eddie George, Governor of the Bank of England, gave hope yesterday that the cost of borrowing will not climb any further by suggesting the economy might be starting to slow down - "as it needs to do, quite soon and quite quickly, if we are not to see inflation pick up". His remarks came as an industrial survey claimed to show the economy was about to slow down - although the signs were inconclusive. The British Chambers of Commerce survey showed both manufacturing and services reporting an increase in the balance of companies reporting higher deliveries and domestic orders.Both sectors reported an increase in the difficulty of recruiting skilled labour, with 74 per cent of manufacturers and 64 per cent of service companies complaining about skill shortages.On the other hand, the 100 companies surveyed had become more pessimistic, with expectations about sales and profitability during the next 12 months declining further. He also delivered a warning that as these skills became more scarce, companies would be charged more and the scope for cowboy operators to enter the market would increase.Within the Government, each Secretary of State will be responsible for ensuring his or her department is millennium safe.

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