Royal Mail faces legal action in strike
TALKS to try to break the deadlocked postal dispute were expected to resume today as the Royal Mail faces legal action over the recruitment of 30,000 agency staff during the strike.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) served notice of action in the High Court on Friday after considering the legal move for the past few weeks.
The company has denied that the 30,000 workers are being used to break the series of post strikes, insisting they are dealing with the backlog of post as well as preparing for the Christmas rush.
Meanwhile, talks between the two sides aimed at resolving the row over jobs, pay and modernisation were to resume today.
The Government was earlier threatened with legal action if it did not investigate claims that agency staff have been unlawfully hired to do the work of striking postal workers.
The GMB union wrote to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson calling on him to investigate the role of employment agencies which have supplied temporary staff to the Royal Mail.
The union believes the law has been broken in recent weeks because it is illegal to take on staff to do the work of people involved in a lawful industrial dispute.
