DLR strike is called off by injunction

The High Court in London has granted an injunction stopping tomorrow’s 48-hour strike on the Docklands Light Railway.

The strike was due to start at 4am on Thursday after talks over redundancies and pensions failed.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union said management had failed to consult workers on issues including work timings.

But Mr Justice Tugend said the strike was unlawful as the ballot notices were invalid.

The RMT said that of 175 workers who had taken part in the ballot, 162 had voted in favour of strike action.

But lawyers for operator Serco Docklands said the notices were defective because of the form of explanation given of job titles and categories.

Serco Docklands, Operator of the Docklands Light Railway, said the company was successful in gaining an injunction against the industrial action on the basis of technical issues with the RMT ballot process.

David Stretch, Managing Director of Serco Docklands, said: “We are pleased to reassure our passengers that services will run as normal on DLR on Thursday and Friday this week.

“We are frustrated at the RMT union for bringing our employees to the brink of unnecessary industrial action. We believe this was unwarranted considering the lengthy and ongoing discussions we had been engaged in over recent months. We are pleased the law is on our side in this yet we remain committed to working with employees and their representatives to address the outstanding issues.

An RMT Union spokesman said: “Once again the full weight of the anti-union laws has been brought down on a group of workers making a stand. A democratic ballot with a massive majority in favour of action has been overturned on an alleged technicality.”