UK: The RMT is to hold a vote on the latest pay and benefits offer from Network Rail, which the union said involves extra money and is not conditional on accepting the infrastructure manager’s modernising maintenance agenda which it ‘does not endorse’.
RMT said the offer amounts to an uplift on salaries of between 14·4% for the lowest paid grades to 9·2% for the highest paid. There is an additional 1·1% on basic earnings and increased backpay. The offer also has a total uplift on basic earnings between 15·2% for the lowest paid grades to 10·3% for the highest paid grades. The increased backpay would be implemented and paid as a lump sum.
The improved offer also involves pulling forward the pay anniversary to October 2022 from January 2023.
RMT said 55% of its Network Rail members earn less than £35 000, so would be entitled to the 15·2% uplift over two years.
Other benefits include 75% discounted leisure travel, ’a long-held demand of Network Rail members’.
The vote is to be held between March 9 and March 20, and in the meantime industrial action is suspended. RMT is not making a recommendation on how to vote
‘Network Rail have made a new and improved offer and now our members will decide whether to accept it’, said General Secretary Mick Lynch on March 8. ‘We will continue our campaign for a negotiated settlement on all aspects of the railway dispute.’
A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said ‘the RMT leadership’s decision to put Network Rail’s deal to its membership is a welcome development, but train operating staff will rightly be asking why their union continues to deny them the opportunity to have their say on our equivalent offer’.
