UK Royal Mail plans court challenge over strikes
Royal Mail’s lawyers are gathering evidence to launch a court challenge against the postal union blamed for encouraging unofficial walkouts across the country.
Following pressure from business, which is worried about the wider impact of the nine-day dispute, company managers received positive legal advice yesterday on the strength of their case.
The company has decided to wait until Monday before pulling together witness statements and documents, which allegedly prove the secret involvement of union militants. Court action would be one of the most significant tests of Thatcherite union legislation since the Royal Mail successfully challenged in court the Communication Workers Union’s right to hold strikes without a ballot in 1990.
Leaders of the CWU lost a national ballot six weeks ago over whether to strike in protest at a 14.5 per cent pay offer linked to productivity reforms.
A separate vote on strikes in London was carried, but the official action that followed had limited impact. Royal Mail now claims union leaders are seeking unlawfully to foment a national dispute against the majority wishes of its members.
The CWU could be fined up to Pounds 250,000 and face court injunctions banning its officials from further involvement in the strike.
The union argues it has sufficiently distanced itself from the unofficial action by faxing letters repudiating each instance of wildcat strikes.
But a number of local officials have been seen on picket lines and the Royal Mail says it has evidence of wider orchestration behind the scenes.
A successful court challenge would dangerously stretch CWU finances and expose individual officers to possible contempt of court proceedings. The union ran a deficit last year of Pounds 1.6m and had a bank overdraft of Pounds 3.8m.
The CWU yesterday said about 30,000 postal workers across the country were on strike, out of its total UK membership of 160,000. In addition to two-thirds of postal workers in London and many staff in the south-east, workers in Stoke and Bristol yesterday joined the stoppage.
Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, said there was “no doubt” the CWU was orchestrating the industrial action and the only reason for delaying legal action had been the need to collect evidence.
The CWU said it was confident it was not vulnerable to a lawsuit. “The union has repudiated the unofficial action,” it said.
Billy Hayes, CWU general-secretary, was involved in urgent strategy meetings at the union’s headquarters in London yesterday. The CWU said Mr Hayes was “frustrated” by the strike and wanted staff to return to work.
The CWU said the issue of the London living allowance, over which two official 24-hour strikes were held last month, was not being discussed at the current talks. The two sides will meet at conciliation service Acas on Monday to renew negotiations over the allowance.
The Trades Union Congress said: “Involving the law will not help get this dispute settled. Only negotiations and an honourable deal can achieve that.”
Mr Hayes told other union leaders at the TUC’s general council meeting on Wednesday that he did not condone unofficial industrial action.
