Agreement reached to end UK Royal Mail dispute

LONDON - Britain's Royal Mail and union leaders agreed in principle on Friday to end a dispute that has caused crippling postal service stoppages and disrupted businesses.

Royal Mail management and union leaders issued a joint statement after hours of talks that said only: "Agreed terms covering all the issues in the dispute will be considered by the union executive on Monday."

Details of the agreement will only be released after it has been submitted to the union executive for approval on Monday.

It came hours after the Royal Mail won an injunction at London's High Court outlawing a new wave of postal strikes scheduled for next week.

The dispute is over pay, pensions and shift changes.

Recent 48-hour stoppages have caused delays and disruption, particularly to firms dependent on mail order business.

Although deliveries resumed on Wednesday, postal workers were left with a backlog of more than 60 million undelivered letters.

Hundreds of postal workers in parts of London and Liverpool have also staged a series of unofficial strikes. Wildcat action on Thursday involved workers at 30 of the Royal Mail's 1,400 depots.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown had called on the postal union to end the strike, saying there was no justification for it.

Royal Mail is fighting private competition from rivals after losing its 350-year monopoly on postal services last year.

Its Chief Executive Adam Crozier says the company desperately needs to modernise to compete and that staff should be more flexible.

Union chiefs say that some working practices at Royal Mail amount to slavery.