Train drivers seek to put ‘dent’ in cost of living in pay talks

Saturday 18 January 2025 12:14 pm
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Saturday 18 January 2025 12:15 pm

Practice drivers in England will look to “put a dent” in the price of residing over the previous few years after they negotiate their subsequent pay settlement, in response to the pinnacle of their union.

Mick Whelan, basic secretary of the Related Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef), advised the i Paper any proposed rise was to make up for earnings misplaced because of the cost-of-living disaster.

A deal agreed final yr with then-transport secretary Louise Haigh, after a two-year dispute, noticed the 4.5 per cent rise in 2024-25, the ultimate stage of an settlement stretching again over three years.

Mr Whelan mentioned he didn’t need to “seem antagonistic” in the beginning of talks on the subsequent pay settlement.

“My view is, fairly merely, would we like greater than we acquired from Louise? Sure, we’d. We all the time mentioned it wasn’t about huge will increase,” he advised the i.

“What we mentioned was about placing a dent in the price of residing for the earlier 5 years.”

Mr Whelan defended salaries paid to his members, saying he didn’t assume different persons are paid sufficient and that wages for nurses, firefighters and jail officers made him “distraught”.

“My actual drawback is, I truly don’t assume different individuals receives a commission sufficient,” he mentioned. “If we don’t take a pay rise, will these firms give it to others?”

Mr Whelan warned about issues with rail staff on “totally different circumstances” when they’re introduced collectively from totally different firms to type the newly created Nice British Railways (GBR) because the Authorities appears to be like to nationalise the trade in England and Wales.

Strikes deliberate by staff on Avanti West Coast over the subsequent two Sundays have been referred to as off to permit for talks to happen.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have been taking industrial motion in a dispute over rest-day working.

Future strikes are nonetheless in place.

Shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon mentioned: “This can be a stark reminder of what occurs beneath Labour – union paymasters make astonishing calls for, Labour bows the knee at each alternative, and it’s the British public that undergo the results.”

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