Engineers at BT had threatened three walkouts

More than 70 members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) were to take part in industrial action in Penrith, Whitehaven and Carlisle on Monday.

The dispute involves a bonus system unions claim is "unfair and divisive".

But BT has obtained the injunction after claiming there were irregularities in the balloting process.

The union says it will comply with the terms of the injunction and consider its position later this week.

The CWU had organised three 24-hour walkouts on 14, 25 and 28 April.

'Standard of service'

The union claimed the bonus scheme put staff under pressure to increase productivity.

But BT had called the walkouts "futile" as about 6,000 engineers had already signed up to the scheme.

The company said it had not been given the legal amount of notice of the stoppage.

A BT spokesman said: "The injunction is good news for BT's customers as we will now be able to deliver the same high standard of service to them on Monday.

"We would like to appeal again to the CWU to re-enter discussions with us in order to settle this dispute without industrial action."

BT already faces the threat of potential strike action from the CWU over its plans to build call centres in India.