The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has pledged to take its fight to the courtroom after Royal Mail applied for a High Court injunction to prevent postal workers taking strike action later this month.

Royal Mail said the CWU had failed to follow a legally binding dispute resolution procedure, making any strike action by its members illegal.

It is an escalation in a long-running dispute over Royal Mail’s proposed new pension scheme and pay rates.

It follows a CWU announcement last week that its members would carry out a two-day strike later this month, after a ballot last month that saw a 73% turnout of union members at Royal Mail vote 89.1% in favour of taking strike action

Royal Mail said CWU must observe a “legally binding external mediation procedure” known as the Agenda for Growth, which it claims both parties signed up to  in 2014.

Royal Mail added: “CWU has declined to withdraw its notification (of industrial action). As a result, Royal Mail will today lodge an application with the High Court for an injunction to prevent industrial action so that the contractual external mediation process can be followed. A date for a hearing will be arranged with the High Court.

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Responding to Royal Mail, CWU General Secretary Dave Ward, said: “The fact Royal Mail Group have tried multiple angles to stop our members exercising their democratic right to take strike action shows how desperate they are.

"Instead of playing court room politics they should be listening to the overwhelming ballot result. We call on the public and businesses across the country to back their postal workers in what was always going to be a watershed dispute”. 

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