UK court blocks planned strike by Royal Mail staff

Royal Mail on Wednesday won a High Court injunction to block strike action by postal workers in Britain during the busy pre-Christmas shopping period next month.

The union denounced the ruling as an "outrage" and said it planned to appeal. The company launched its legal action last week to prevent the planned walkout that had been due also around the time of the country's general election on December 12 that risked delaying the arrival of postal votes.

Royal Mail had pointed to "potential irregularities" in the strike ballot that had been called during a dispute between postal workers and management over pay and other employment conditions.

Royal Mail had also highlighted "the damage industrial action would do to the company and its customers in the run-up to Christmas".

The company brought legal action against the Communication Workers Union that had carried out the strike ballot on behalf of its members working for Royal Mail.

In a post on Twitter, the CWU described Wednesday's court ruling as "an utter outrage.

"We balloted over 110,000 members and they voted by over 97 percent in favour of strike action in a massive 76 percent turnout," CWU general secretary Dave Ward added in a statement.

"Members participated and cast their vote of their own free will," he added. "To suggest otherwise is to insult the intelligence and the integrity of thousands and thousands of good, hard-working people.