Union bosses have threatened legal action against Royal Mail after it announced that it would recruit up to 30,000 temporary staff to cope with strikes by postal workers and to deal with the Christmas rush.

With two national post strikes due this week, Royal Mail has announced that it will hire twice the number of extra staff it usually takes on in the run-up to Christmas.

The leader of the Communication Workers Union, which has called the strikes, accused bosses of inflaming the long-running dispute over jobs, pay and services.

“I think it is a stupid move. It will inflame things,” Billy Hayes, the CWU general secretary, said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

He added that the announcement was “typical” of the culture of management at Royal Mail.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, Britain's general trade union, went further, claiming that the move was tantamount to strike-breaking and threatening that any employment agency that helped to recruit postal staff during the strike would face heavy fines.

“It is beyond belief that in the very week Lord Mandelson has delayed employment rights for agency workers, his department has given the go-ahead for Royal Mail to hire 30,000 agency staff to break a lawful trade dispute,” Mr Kenny said.

“There are strict laws that forbid employers and employment agencies using agency staff to break a lawful dispute and it is the job of Lord Mandelson’s department to enforce those laws.

“GMB and those who rely on the Royal Mail will be watching Lord Mandelson closely to ensure that the dispute is resolved as quickly as possible and that employment agency staff are not used to break a lawful trade dispute.

“Those who run employment agencies need to be aware that they personally will be liable for a fine of £5,000 per person, per day for every worker they supply to Royal Mail during a trade dispute.”

Mr Hayes did not comment directly on legal action against Royal Mail but an unnamed CWU official confirmed that it, too. would consider legal action over the temporary workers.

“We will be looking at the legal side of this and we are calling on recruitment agencies to be aware of the law if they are asked to supply temporary workers to the Royal Mail,” said the official.

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