SHAPPS’ ‘LIES’ OVER STRIKES
Top lawyer shoots down claim he has no role
GRANT Shapps is stopping rail companies from settling with strikers, according to a top barrister as the network was paralysed again yesterday.
The Transport Secretary was accused of telling porkies by insisting he has no role in the negotiations.
But Michael Ford QC said rail contracts gave “the ultimate power and direction of the handling of the strike to the Secretary of State”.
He added: “These provisions mean train operators do not have freedom to negotiate matters which have given rise to the dispute”. Mr Ford, an employment lawyer, was hired by the TUC whose boss Frances O’Grady said: “The PM and Transport Secretary have misled the public.”
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch added: “We’ve always known the Government has extensive powers in these negotiations. This legal opinion confirms that.”
The advice contradicts Mr Shapps’s claim to Parliament that “these negotiations are a matter between the employer and union”.
Days later he told TalkTV’s Piers Morgan the same thing, adding: “I can’t settle this dispute.”
Yesterday Mr
Lynch repeated his call for Mr Shapps to join talks as a third day of strikes saw only one in five train services running.
He wants a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies before talks on pay and working conditions.
Treasury Secretary Simon Clarke said yesterday public sector pay awards should not exceed 3%. Mr Lynch wants at least 7%.
The Department for Transport said: “The Transport Secretary is required to set the limits of taxpayer support and ultimately sign off on any deal – not to be involved in negotiating one. The union knows full well that negotiations don’t happen with the Government – they happen with employers.”
nigel.nelson@sundaymirror.co.uk