Trainee ScotRail drivers are paid £27,000 to sit at home

TRAINEE train drivers are being paid £27,000-a-year to stay at home as services plummet because of Covid.

Recruits taken on by ScotRail in the months before lockdown have been unable to qualify as a result of lockdown restrictions. The situation has affected 1 trainee drivers.

ScotRail confirmed a ‘backlog’ of new recruits unable to work.

But a spokesman said it had continued to run a ‘reliable and robust’ timetable since the first lockdown.

Once qualified, trainees will have salaries bolstered by £10k, according to job advertisements from its last driver recruiting campaign in 2019.

ScotRail is one of the few firms to offer staff a no compulsory redundancy clause in their contracts.

David Simpson, ScotRail operations director, said: ‘We are proud of the work we have done to keep key workers moving during the pandemic, and now to support the rollout of the vaccination during the most challenging time in the railway’s history.

‘But we are also facing the biggest financial crisis and there is a need for the business to modernise to deliver a sustainable future for the railway and everyone who works in it.’

Since lockdown, ScotRail has seen a 90 per cent passenger reduction.

The West of Scotland, which has the greatest concentration of ScotRail services, has been hit hardest because of Level 4 restrictions. The Dutch-owned company is facing a £2 0million funding black hole.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will announce her roadmap out of lockdown tomorrow.