Strike ballot for railway catering staff

CATERING staff on Virgin Rail’s west coast route are to be balloted for industrial action in a dispute over pay.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, employed by the DHL Group, will vote in the coming weeks on whether to launch a campaign of action.

The union said the workers, who staff catering services on trains from London to Glasgow, have been offered a pay rise of 1.75 per cent, but only for those who did not receive any increase when the national living wage came into effect earlier this year.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “This union will not tolerate a grinding down of pay rates to poverty thresholds on Britain’s railways at a time when the political focus is all on lifting wages to decent, living levels.

“DHL’s offer does nothing to assist the overwhelming majority of their staff, who are based at Euston, to secure the London Living Wage.”