RMT Rail Dispute Update - July 2022

Rail Dispute Update RMT will be taking more strike action on 27 July and two more dates have been announced for 18 and 20 August. This follows the failure of negotiations with the Rail Delivery Group and Network Rail to produce any pay offer that addresses the cost-of-living crisis and our members’ concerns about the threat of mass redundancies and hugely detrimental changes to terms and conditions, including imposing longer working hours for less pay.

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The rail dispute is with Network Rail and thirteen Department for Transport controlled train companies and involves over 40,000 RMT members.

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We have been seeking to work with government and employers for almost two years to address the challenges facing our industry, including the jobs, pay and conditions of our rail workers. Intensive negotiations have taken place with Network Rail and, separately, with the Train Operating Companies under the auspices of the Rail Delivery Group. On 12 July, Network Rail made an offer of 4%, followed by 2% the following year and a further 2%, but conditional on accepting modernisation cuts.

This is a real-terms pay cut that in no way addresses the cost of living crisis. It also compares poorly with deals achieved on London Underground (8.4%), Docklands Light Railway (7.3%) and Merseyrail (7.1%). RMT’s Executive rejected this offer. The Rail Delivery Group has made no improvement to its offer of 2% plus 1% conditional on implementing its reform agenda. It has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies and insists on biringing in Driver Only Operation.

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Over the last few weeks the negotiations have revealed an employers’ agenda for a wholesale attack aimed at restoring Dickensian working conditions. The employers want to increase the working week by five hours for new entrants and abolish collective bargaining over pay. The employers literally want rail workers to work more for less. This attempt to create a race to the bottom will also store up future industrial relations problems by creating a two–tier workforce. The employers have not ruled using the “More Hours, Less Pay” model for current employees by giving them notice on their existing contracts and imposing new contracts.

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It is also clear that the government are directly controlling the dispute.

Network Rail negotiators have indicated that they have to refer back to the government throughout the negotiations. The Train Operating Companies are even more closely entangled with the government. As the legal opinion secured by the TUC on 25 June showed, the TOCs must take their mandate on all issues relating to pay, employment and conditions from the Secretary of State and, as Grant Shapps

has now admitted, he must sign off any deal. In addition, in any dispute the TOCs must agree a ‘dispute handling policy’ with the government and grant the Secretary of State complete control of the dispute. The sanction for failing to do this is loss of their indemnity payments. Astonishingly, the government’s contracts allow the TOCs to claim back lost revenue from the taxpayer, subject to the conditions above being met. RMT has estimated that this indemnity was worth £65 million to the TOCs for the first three days’ action. RMT’s view is that the negotiators, particularly from the TOCs, are not really empowered to make a deal but are brokers for a government remotely operating the dispute. The union has called on the government to either come to the table itself or unshackle the negotiators to make a deal.

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The government’s response has been to introduce dangerous and inflammatory legislation to allow employers to use untrained agency staff to work during strikes.

This legislation went through the Commons on 11th July. The government has also said that it will bring in legislation to enforce Minimum Service Levels. It appears bent on confrontation rather than negotiation.

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The government claim they ‘bailed out’ the rail industry during the pandemic. In fact, the funding to make up the shortfall in passenger revenue was essential to keep the railways operating to keep people and goods moving to save lives and the economy which is why rail workers were identified as key workers and could not be furloughed. The only part of the industry that was bailed out was the private operators who would have gone bust without government support to continue to make profits.

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The government described rail workers as ‘heroes’ during the pandemic. Rail staff work all hours, seven days a week to keep the country moving. Far from modernising our railways the government now want to make compulsory redundancies with cuts to thousands of rail jobs. This includes removal of ontrain and station staff, enforcement of Driver Only Operation on trains, closure of all ticket offices and the loss of thousands of safety critical infrastructure staff. This will reduce services and make our railways less safe, secure and accessible.

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The railways are back on track to recover from the pandemic. In the last weeks, passenger numbers have been running at 82% of pre-pandemic levels overall.

Moreover, as our population and economy grow protecting and expanding services will be essential for protecting our prosperity and climate. Our railways are green transport for the future which is why it’s so short sighted for government to make these cuts.

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The rail workers involved in this dispute include on train and station staff, cleaners and workers who repair the track and trains. Most workers in this dispute have a salary of between £25–31,000. Despite the cost-of-living crisis most have not had pay rises for two or three years. Rail workers are angry that their livelihoods are now under threat when during the pandemic rail bosses have taken home £1m pay packets and rail companies have made in excess of £500 million a year in private profits since the start of the health emergency.

The reason cuts are now being proposed is so companies can continue to rake in profits, regardless of the consequences for passengers and workers.