Royal Mail workers call off strike action

Planned strikes by staff at Royal Mail over the next two weeks have been abandoned following a challenge by the firm.

The Communication Workers Union, which represents much of Royal Mail's staff, said on Monday that it had chosen to withdraw industrial action notices over the next two weeks on the back of a letter it received from Royal Mail's legal team.

Andy Furey, the CWU's acting deputy general secretary, said: "We entirely understand the anger felt by many over the decision but we believe it is a necessary move to protect our dispute.

"They will not be forced into submission so easily, and we will be reminding the company of their determination at Acas in the coming days."

Roughly 115,000 members of the CWU intended to strike on 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 November.

Royal Mail, which recently claimed strikes had already cost it £70.0m in 2022, said: "The CWU has withdrawn strike action following Royal Mail writing to CWU to highlight numerous material concerns with the formal notification of planned rolling strike action.

"Royal Mail and CWU have planned talks at Acas on Monday 31 October. We will continue to do all we can to keep business, companies and the country connected."

As of 0920 GMT, Royal Mail shares were up 6.60% at 206.60p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com