Network Rail Staff To Strike Next Month

Union members at Network Rail are to stage a 24-hour and 48-hour strike next month over pay.

Members of the RMT union are taking action after rejecting a new pay offer from the rail company.

They will stop working for 24 hours from 5pm on 4 June and for 48 hours from the same time on 9 June.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union include signallers and maintenance workers, who have announced they will not be working overtime between 6 and 12 June.

A planned strike over last weekend's Bank Holiday was narrowly averted after the rail company offered staff a new pay deal.

However, RMT representatives have now turned down the offer, leading to renewed plans for a strike.

Network Rail originally offered a four-year deal consisting of an offer of £500 for this year, with rises to follow over three years in line with inflation.

However, the union says the new offer was a two-year deal only - a 1% rise this year and around 1.4% next year, with no compulsory redundancies during that time.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said a 1% deal was "wholly inadequate".

"We have a massive mandate for action which shows the anger of safety-critical staff across the rail network at attacks on their standards of living," Mr Cash said.

"And the blunt truth is that this dispute could be settled for a fraction of the money being handed out in senior manager bonuses and to the train operators for not running services.

"That is a ludicrous situation which should never have been allowed to have arisen."

He added: "It is our members battling to keep Britain moving around the clock, often in appalling conditions, and they deserve a fair share from Network Rail for their incredible efforts.

"Our rail staff deserve a fair reward for the high-pressure, safety-critical work that they undertake day and night and the last thing that we need is a demoralised, burnt-out workforce living in fear for their livelihoods and their futures."

The RMT said Network Rail produced profits of £1bn last year and was paying out £60m in bonuses.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which also suspended a strike on Bank Holiday, is to ballot its members on the new pay offer.

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said he was ready to "get around the table" with the RMT and warned that services would be "severely affected" if the strikes went ahead.

"It is clearly unacceptable for the RMT to massively disrupt the travelling public with strike action when we are ready to continue talks," said Mr Carne.