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On Friday, the High Court restrained the union from calling out its members in mail centres and delivery offices on Monday 15th, Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th October respectively. As a consequence, strikes scheduled for these dates are no longer taking place, although wildcat strikes continued across parts of the country. 

At the same time, Royal Mail said it had reached agreement with the CWU after days of talks hosted by the Trade Union Congress (TUC). The CWU union has instructed its members to attend for work and work normally.

The CWU was keen to point out that the injunction does not cover airports and separate collection hubs. However, because of the small numbers involved, it said it had decided to also withdraw this planned action. The CWU maintained that the Court injunction would not affect further industrial action of which it has already served notice. 

Royal Mail's decision to try and stop further havoc to mail services follows two weeks of official and wildcat strikes that have crippled particularly small and medium size firm's ability to send out invoices and receive cheques from customers.

The latest round of strike action by CWU members ended in the early hours of Wednesday 10th October. Royal Mail claimed that out of a workforce of 130,000, fewer than 1,900 were not working normally, a claim rejected by the CWU.

"Whilst we are encouraged that increased numbers of operational staff are attending work and that managerial and support staff continue to keep mail flowing, the situation remains very serious and our ability to provide services remains extremely limited. We are very sorry that we have had to withdraw a number of service promises and guarantees, but we will reinstate these as soon as we are able to honour them," Royal Mail said.

Although Royal Mail said that it would no try to return services to normal as soon as possible, it had a significant build-up of mail that will take time to clear when the strikes have finished.

It is not yet clear whether the injunction and successful negotiations will put an end to wildcat strikes in London, Liverpool and other parts of the country that continued throughout the week.

Royal Mail said that these actions "severely limits" the firm's ability to provide any services for the coming period. Customers were told to expect severe disruption to all postal services during the strikes and for a significant period afterwards.

Businesses across the country were severely hit by the union members' actions, as they were unable to send out invoices and reminders and could not receive cheque payments. It is thought the strikes have cost Royal Mail in excess of £260 million at a time when the firm is already struggling to retain business customers.

Related links

• Royal Mail
• CWU