Royal Mail workers won a landmark deal yesterday with the privatised company protecting them against a race to the bottom and promising a 9 per cent pay rise over three years.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it would recommend the agreement - which would avert strikes among 130,000 employees - to its members.

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: "The legal protections for Royal Mail employees come hard on the heels of the privatisation of the company and are unprecedented in delivering the strongest protections for employees."

The deal "breaks new ground" by incorporating legally binding protection with a commitment to improving industrial stability, he said.

Workers will receive a 3 per cent pay rise backdated to April, 3 per cent from next April and 2.8 per cent from April 2015, as well as a £200 lump sum paid before this Christmas.

The legal protections - which will continue until at least their first review in January 2019 - include a Royal Mail pledge not to outsource, sell or transfer any part of the business.

The union also won promises not to make and workers self-employed or introduce a tow-tier workforce by keeping the same conditions for new staff.

The company also pledged to make its "overriding objective" to make all future changes without compulsory redundancies.

Members at the Royal Mail group - which includes Parcelforce - will vote on the deal in early January.

The union also achieved a landmark pensions deal with the company delivering "significant improvements" to the 35,000-strong defined contribution scheme.

Mr Ward said in a letter to members: "What has been achieved will provide you with unprecedented protections within a privatised company and will put you in the strongest possible position to embark on what will be a new era for the UK postal industry."