A planned strike by thousands of Asda staff - including workers at the retail giant's Didcot depot - has been called off after a last-minute deal.

Members of the GMB union at 20 distribution depots across the country were due to walk out for five days from tomorrow, threatening to disrupt deliveries to supermarkets.

But following talks between the two sides, a breakthrough was achieved and the strike will not go ahead.

The workers have been involved in a long-running dispute over pay, health and safety and national bargaining which threatened one of the biggest bouts of industrial action involving a leading supermarket for many years.

The company, which employs 396 people at the depot on the town's Southmead industrial estate, had been due to seek an injunction in the High Court after alleging there had been irregularities in a recent ballot of workers.

But the action will not go ahead following the agreement, which was thrashed out between company officials and union leaders during several hours of talks at TUC headquarters in central London.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, said: "This new agreement, which GMB and Asda Wal-Mart have worked very hard to achieve, heralds a new, fresh approach to representation and bargaining between the company and GMB."

Under the agreement, a new council will be established to deal with issues at distribution depots, and the GMB will be given access to all of the sites, with facilities to recruit workers into membership.

The agreement said that Asda had no objection to collective bargaining and would remain neutral, continuing to communicate with its employees in the normal way.

David Cheesewright, chief operating officer at Asda, said: "We're pleased to have signed an agreement acceptable to both sides to end the current dispute - good news for our customers and colleagues alike."