Royal Mail has awarded its chief executive hundreds of thousands of pounds in bonuses in a move that is likely to increase the prospect of an all-out strike over pay, The Times has learnt.

Adam Crozier is understood to have received a bonus of up to £370,000 and further benefits, taking his total package to more than £1 million.

His award comes as the Communication Workers Union is holding a strike ballot over a pay offer of 2.5 per cent or a £600 lump sum. The union is increasingly confident of winning the ballot, which could trigger the first national postal strike since the summer of 1996. That action led to huge backlogs of mail around the country.

Details of Mr Crozier’s pay, which makes him the highest-paid civil servant in the country, will be revealed in Royal Mail’s accounts and financial results for the past financial year. Publication has been delayed and Royal Mail has not set a date for them to appear.

Some union sources believe that the organisation has delayed publication to avoid controversy over the pay awards, which will also go to other executives, while the ballot is running.

The result of the ballot is due on Thursday. Independent polling by the union last week predicted a vote of 65 per cent in favour of industrial action. If the union does win a “yes” vote, it could begin strike action the following week, although it could leave some time for last-ditch talks with Royal Mail.

Allan Leighton, the postal group’s chairman, is also expected to have received a bonus of more than £100,000. The bonuses are triggered by quality of service – how many letters arrive within their targeted times – and the financial performance of the group.

Mr Crozier is entitled to a bonus of 60 per cent of his salary, which last year was £615,000, if targets are met, and 100 per cent if they are exceeded substantially. There is little prospect of targets being exceeded because the group is expected to report sharply reduced profits. Royal Mail’s half-year figures, which were also delayed, showed an 86 per cent collapse in profits to £22 million. But its full-year figures will be boosted by the Christmas period.

The union reacted angrily to the prospect of bumper bonuses for Royal Mail executives. Dave Ward, its deputy general secretary, said: “The quality of service has been earned by postmen and women delivering the letters. While Adam Crozier reaps outrageous bonuses, Royal Mail has offered a pay rise that is half the level of inflation.”

A spokesman for Royal Mail said that it would not comment on accounts that had not been published. He confirmed, however, that the directors had not waived their entitlement to bonuses.

Royal Mail is also expected to reveal a substantial pay-off to the former head of its letters division who left after just over a year with the business.

Ian Griffiths, who earned £500,000, left at the end of March.

If a national strike does go ahead, postal services will be crippled because rival operators to Royal Mail do not have their own delivery workers.

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