Post workers strike outside Wellington Post Office last week.
Crucial talks aimed at averting fresh postal strikes will be held today as a new study revealed the cost of the dispute to industry.
Leaders of the Communication Workers’ Union will meet Royal Mail bosses.
The meeting comes after after TUC general secretary Brendan Barber invited the two sides to try to break the deadlocked row over jobs, pay and modernisation.
Up to 120,000 workers are to stage fresh strikes from Thursday unless progress is made today.
Research by the London Chamber of Commerce showed that industrial action by postal workers had cost firms in the capital more than £500 million since the start of the summer.
The group also calculated that the two days of official strike action last week alone cost the London economy an estimated £200 million.
Chief executive Colin Stanbridge said: “This is a colossal amount of money for the London economy to lose.
“Not being able to rely on a normal postal service forces companies to pay extra for couriers, delays consumer spending, damages client relationships and plays havoc with a firm’s cash flow.”
Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said he hoped “common sense” would prevail in the new talks, but he stressed the importance of modernising the service.
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