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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Miriam Burrell

LNER train drivers to stage series of strikes over 'breakdown in industrial relations'

Train drivers on LNER are to stage a series of strikes every Saturday between August 31 and November 9, and on every Sunday from September 1 to November 10.

Rail services between London, the North and Scotland will likely be disrupted as a result.

The 22-day strike comes after a breakdown in industrial relations and the breaking of agreements by the company, their union Aslef said on Friday.

In April members of Aslef at LNER walked out in a dispute over terms and conditions, disrupting services between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, and King’s Cross and Leeds.

It is a separate dispute from the national pay dispute, with involves 16 train companies.

Mick Whelan, general secretary, said: “The continued failure of the company to resolve long-standing industrial relations issues has forced us into this position. We would much rather not be here.

“But the company has brutally, and repeatedly, broken diagramming and roster agreements, failed to adhere to the agreed bargaining machinery, and totally acted in bad faith.”

Nigel Roebuck, Aslef officer in the north-east who leads on negotiations with LNER, said: “The bottom line is that LNER does not employ enough drivers to deliver the services it has promised passengers, and the government, it will run.

“This TOC’s legacy of under-established depots means it has always relied on favours and goodwill and, when that evaporated, they started to try to bully our members, and then to break out agreements.

“They chose to put managers into our positions, first during strike days, and then it escalated into every day, including periods when the company did not have a rest day working agreement, and drivers would not work non-contractual overtime.

“Unfortunately, whilst the manager numbers driving covered service gaps, LNER without a rest day working agreement with ASLEF has seen daily cancellations some days in high volume.”

Aslef has questioned the safety aspect of managers “dual roleing” and the ORR is investigating, the union said.

An LNER spokesperson said: “Our priority focus will be on minimising disruption to customers during the forthcoming ASLEF strikes, which sadly will continue to cause disruption and delays. We are surprised and disappointed to hear this news following recent constructive conversations.

“We will continue to work with ASLEF to find a way to end this long running dispute which only damages the rail industry.”

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