POST Office workers will form picket lines in Southend and Leigh tomorrow in an ongoing dispute over pay and jobs.

Staff at the High Street and Railway Road branches are expected to walk out for the third time in a month over plans to make changes to the service.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has called the action, from 1pm, over what it says will be a four year pay freeze.

It says staff haven’t had a rise since April 2011, and will not get one until 2015 at the earliest.

The Post Office says it wants to offer the workforce one-off payments, but the union says these are based on them meeting unrealistic targets.

Union rep Peter Meech, said: “Our members are having changes and targets put on them too fast and with two much pressure.

“What we’re saying is that staff shouldn’t be going so many years without a rise.”

South Essex rep Gary Bond added: “Staff in Southend are also concerned about possible franchising of the offices.

“They said in 2007 there would be no more changes, but then they franchised many offices and moved them into WHSmith.”

Strike action also took place on Easter Saturday and Friday April 19.

The nationwide strikes are also taking place as protests over the proposed closures of some crown post offices, including Basildon and Laindon.

A Post Office spokesman said: “We want to resolve this dispute and we are extremely disappointed that the CWU have called for further strike action which can only cause needless disruption to customers.

“We must get the Crown network back into profit by April 2015. Our Crown Network is currently losing £40m of public money and this cannot continue.

He added: “Any consolidated pay increase will increase these losses. We want to make three cash payments of up to £3,400 before April 2015.

“We remain open to discussing with the CWU how we can get the first of these payments into people’s pay packets as quickly as possible.”