'Employ 'hooligan', or we strike'

Troubled Royal Mail has caved in to union pressure in London over the sacking of an alleged football hooligan postman.

The company said it will reemploy Tom Doherty, an Arsenal fan dismissed for allegedly fighting at the 2000 Uefa Cup final, if he wins an appeal in three weeks' time.

The decision represents a humiliating reversal for Royal Mail managers after they had refused to take him back even though an employment tribunal ruled he was unfairly dismissed and should be reinstated.

Local Communication Workers Union (CWU) leaders immediately announced they were dropping planned strike action over the company's stance by up to 3,500 staff in north London.

Official Peter Donaghy said: "It is a fantastic result. The company has realised it is in the wrong and made the right decision for once."

Mr Doherty, a postman working out of the notoriously volatile Almeida Street office in Islington, is expected to win his appeal to be reinstated on 21 February.

Royal Mail's announcement was made on the day the ballot result for the strike was due - and as the company warned it faced the threat of collapse through proposals to allow rivals to compete on all mail deliveries within four years.

Any strike could have crippled deliveries to hundreds of thousands of addresses throughout north London at the worst possible-time for a company whose efficiency has been ravaged by industrial action.

A national strike over pay is still being threatened by the CWU. Union negotiators and managers from Consignia will meet again today in talks supervised by the conciliation service Acas.

Postal workers across London staged a major unofficial walkout crippling the postal system when Tom and his brother Mick, a counter clerk in Essex Road, were dismissed 18 months ago in connection with the same incident.

The Arsenal fans were sacked in May 2000 after being caught on camera apparently fighting at the Uefa Cup final between Arsenal and Turkish club Galatasaray in Copenhagen.

Photographs in the national press showed Mick Doherty throwing a punch at a man who appeared to be a Turkish supporter during clashed between rival fans in Copenhagen.

However, the brothers' supporters insisted throughout that they had been protecting women and children in their group from an attack by Turks throwing chairs and other items.

Mick Doherty's position remains unclear as Post Office Counters is refusing to take him back even though a separate employment tribunal ruled he too should be re-employed.

John Keggie, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said Post Office Counters should do "the honourable thing" with regards to the counter clerk. The ballot was called for both Doherty brothers and a new ballot would have to be held relating to Mick Doherty only. Industry sources say the chance of a strike over his position is limited as many staff will not want to endanger deals struck over their job transfers in Islington, part of a restructuring programme in the capital.

Royal Mail initially took a hard line stance over the issue after Tony Blair had urged employers to dismiss staff suspected of soccer hooliganism.