High Court outlaws Royal Mail postal strikes

A High Court judge this evening granted an injunction by Royal Mail to block more strikes on Monday and Tuesday as its long-running dispute with the main postal union became increasingly bitter.

The postal group went to the High Court today for an injunction to stop fresh official strikes as illegal wildcat action spread to about 60 operations, involving more than 4,000 employees.

On Wednesday, when four days of official national strikes ended, wildcat walkouts began at 24 Royal Mail centers in protest at new shift patterns.

Today the unofficial action hit Edinburgh and Grangemouth along with the previously affected areas of south and east London and Liverpool. The wildcat action is halting work at major mail sorting centers and delivery operations, leaving some areas without post for more than a week.

Royal Mail has now lost more than one million working days to strikes since the Communication Workers Union began industrial action in July. The dispute – one of the worst in the organisation’s history – is over pay, pensions, job cuts and working patterns. It is Royal Mail’s demand for greater flexibility in working hours that is causing the biggest problem for settling the dispute.

Talks continue between the union and Royal Mail at the TUC, chaired by the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. The TUC has now hosted more than a week of virtually round-the-clock talks.

Royal Mail’s injunction claims that the union had given flawed notification of the strikes. Although the union gave notice within the proper timeframe of a week, proper notification also requires that every workplace affected is properly detailed. Royal Mail’s solicitors provided a 15-page petition to the High Court saying that the notification was not filed properly.