Train working corporations have provided the drivers’ union a two-year deal in a bid to resolve the bitter pay dispute – as strikes throughout the rail community proceed on Saturday.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) stated it was providing a “landmark outline proposal” in change for a pay improve of 4% for 2022 and 4% for this 12 months.
It additionally features a dedication to no obligatory redundancies till not less than 31 March 2024.
Steve Montgomery, chairman of the RDG, stated: “This is a fair and affordable offer in challenging times, providing a significant uplift in salary for train drivers while bringing in common-sense and long-overdue reforms that would drive up reliability for passengers and allow the railway to adapt to changed travel patterns.”
Drivers’ union Aslef stated it had not seen the provide.
It comes as RMT union members at Network Rail and 14 practice corporations are persevering with with a 48-hour strike which is ready to cripple companies throughout the nation once more on Saturday.
Only round one in 5 trains will run, with companies beginning later and ending earlier.
The RMT has rejected a pay provide from practice corporations of 4% final 12 months and 4% this 12 months, saying a “host of unacceptable changes” had been included such because the widespread enlargement of driver-only operation on practice companies.
It argued that whereas rail staff have had their pay frozen between March 2020 and September 2022, official information confirmed that the non-public practice operators made £310m in taxpayer-funded income throughout the identical interval.
By September this 12 months, that determine will likely be in extra of £400m, all of which might be was shareholder dividends, stated the union.
RMT basic secretary Mick Lynch stated: “While the secretary of state and the Rail Delivery Group spin about the need for reform to fund pay rises, the truth is that the money was always there but it’s being salted away by a gang of profiteers and their mates in the government.
“It’s outrageous that the pursuits of staff, passengers and the taxpaying public are all sacrificed to the greed of a handful of personal transport corporations who’re being assured income once they cannot run a railway even once we’re not on strike.”
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The latest strikes are part of a long-running pay dispute between rail staff and the train operating companies, that has caused widespread disruption to services across the UK.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Passengers have rightly had sufficient of rail strikes and need the disruption to finish.
“Unions should step back from this strike action so we can start 2023 by ending this damaging dispute.”
Source: information.sky.com”
