Network Rail workers are set to stage extra strike action which will cause huge travel disruption over the festive period amid a long-running dispute with their employer.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers ( RMT ) union has decided to put the latest offer from Network Rail forward to members in a referendum that will close next Monday, December 12, with a recommendation to reject. The news comes after the RMT rejected a new pay offer on Sunday night which could have seen strike action averted, and demanded fresh talks to reopen negotiations around pay, working conditions and job security.
All strike action planned for next week across 14 train companies on December 13, 14, 16 and 17 will go ahead as planned. In addition, further strike action will take place from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27, dates which the RMT say coincide with "the wind down of passenger services and the commencement of engineering works".
RMT boss Mick Lynch said: "We remain available for talks in order to resolve these issues but we will not bow to pressure from the employers and the government to the detriment of our members."
Downing Street put pressure on the RMT to "think again" and call off the upcoming strikes after the union rejected an offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) on Sunday. The Group offered workers a backdated 4% pay rise for 2022 with the same rise again next year and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies before April 2024.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman told the PA news agency: "We do think this is the right offer, it is a significant improvement on what they were offered before and we are confident it represents a good offer for their membership that provides them a significant uplift in pay and certainty, they will get a further uplift the following year.
"We continue to urge the RMT to think again. There is still time," the spokesman continued. "They have been offered an improved, new deal by the train operators, a 4% increase both this year and next – that’s a change from what was offered before, which was a 3% one-year deal.
"The proposal also backdates to the beginning of the current financial year, meaning staff could go into Christmas having the knowledge that they will receive an improved, back-dated pay rise early in the new year."
However, the RMT argued that the offer was conditional on accepting vast changes to working practices, huge job losses, driver-only operated (DOO) trains on all companies and the closure of ticket offices. Mick Lynch said: "We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long-term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions."
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