Industrial action ceases in Scotland as RMT accepts improved pay offer
RMT members in Scotland have voted to accept ScotRail’s pay offer by 1,210 in favour to 578 against, ending industrial action
“This offer delivers an average 7.5% basic pay increase, job security for at least six years, and increases allowances in commission payments,” said ScotRail Head of Customer Operations Phil Campbell.
ScotRail’s further improved offer includes an increase from £500 to £750 for acceptance of technology consolidated into basic pay, on top of a 5% basic increase.
This is in return for the acceptance of current technology, such as mobile devices for checking and selling tickets using a passenger assistance app.
This would mean an average pay increase of 7.5% for general grades, which includes roles such as conductors, ticket examiners, and station staff. Salaries for lower-paid staff would increase by more than 8.5%, said ScotRail.
The deal also extends the current rest day working agreement to October 31 2023 and increases the no compulsory redundancies job guarantee from five to six years. The Sunday working allowance is increased by 10%.
An excess revenue share premium of up to £195 per period (gross) rewards all staff where ScotRail exceeds revenue budget targets. This pays £390 so far this year (gross), as ScotRail exceeded revenue targets in April and May.
It also introduces a ‘2p per-scan’ commission for mobile ticketing for the relevant staff, and a 3% commission payment for all gate and manual barrier staff.
Twenty-two bronze ticket offices moved to silver classification, with a further review in March 2023.
■ A dispute has broken out on the Elizabeth line, where the TSSA is balloting members in a pay dispute. It says staff are “paid significantly less than equivalent colleagues across the network”. The ballot closes on December 22.
TSSA represents management grades employed by Rail for London Infrastructure (RfLI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London that is the operational arm), including Traffic Managers, Service Infrastructure Managers and Incident Response Managers. It says a strike by these staff would stop services.
The union says RfLI has offered 4%, whereas employees at MTR (the outsourced part of the Elizabeth line responsible for train drivers) received an 8.2% increase this year.
It says that Docklands Light Railway staff received 9.25% and
staff at London Overground have been offered 6.5%.
Staff at MTR, in similar roles to TSSA members in RfLI, are on salaries up to £30,000 more than their RfLI equivalents.
■ Around 350 Great Western Railway engineers are set to go on strike on December 15, over pay. The Unite workers previously took action in September, after a three year pay-freeze.
The workers are at depots and stations in London, Exeter, Tiverton, Plymouth, Swindon, Swansea, Reading, Penzance, Oxford and Bristol.
If the dispute is not resolved, more strikes will be scheduled.
■ RMT members working as security staff for Eurostar, contracted out to facilities management company Mitie, are set to walk out on December 16, 18, 22 and 23 in a pay dispute, after an 81% vote in favour of strikes. Over 100 staff are expected to take part in the action.
■ RMT members at Alstom Transport Services working on the Avanti West Coast contract have voted by 87-31 to accept a 4% pay rise, backdated to April 1, and a further 3% effective from October 1.