UK: Train operating companies opened the industry-wide voluntary severance scheme to staff at midday on October 13, as part of a Department for Transport-led cost reduction initiative launched in response to expected changes in passenger demand in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mirroring a similar scheme launched by Network Rail earlier in the year, the operators’ scheme is aimed at employees who choose to leave their current roles, and according to the Rail Delivery Group ‘will provide support for those who are ready for a change and would like to volunteer to leave their current jobs’.
During the next three weeks eligible employees will be able to get a calculation of the support available to them and then express interest. RDG said ‘there will also be new opportunities for employees to move to new even more rewarding roles, supported by re-training and re-skilling programmes’.
Sources close to the discussions told Rail Business UK that the scheme is not a redundancy programme, and as such a different set of rules could be applied by HMRC in terms of how any lump sums are taxed and also on pension liabilities. All staff considering applying are advised to get independent legal and financial advice before entering into any agreement.
The scheme is open to eligible people working for employers listed in the Enabling Framework Agreement published by the Rail Industry Recovery Group in June, ‘except those at Southeastern as the opening of the scheme will be reviewed after it changes ownership’ on October 17.
Certain roles which are seen as being under-resourced or vital to future operations will not be included; these include drivers, train managers and engineers.
One insider commented that the scheme is ‘fairly generous’ to ‘help people who already want to go to go, in the hope that those who want to stay can stay’. However, it ‘is very definitely a chance for an expression of interest, and it is very definitely not guaranteed [that an application would be accepted] if the role is needed from a business continuity perspective.’
Industry response
RDG Chair Steve Montgomery said ‘the railway can grow and become more customer focused, with new opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people working on it, but to do that we must adapt, and we cannot take more than our fair share from the taxpayer.
‘Working with trade unions and our employees, our aim is to secure even more rewarding long-term careers for those that want them and offer support for those who would like to leave, reshaping the railway to deliver a strong, green recovery across all parts of the country as we rebuild.’
RDG noted that ‘as set out in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Fiscal Risks report in July, rail will be competing with health and education spending if changes are not made’.
Responding to the launch of the scheme, General Secretary of the TSSA trade union Manuel Cortes said the announcement had not been agreed with any of the rail unions, and was ‘ludicrous’ given the role rail can play in decarbonisation.
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch called for it to be withdrawn ‘before serious damage is done to industrial relations at this critical point as we emerge from the pandemic’.
‘We are angry that these proposals have been bounced on us outside of the discussions we have been engaged in through the Rail Industry Recovery Group. That is a serious breach of trust’, he added.
‘RMT’s executive will consider our response but we have said from the off that we will not allow the Covid pandemic to be used as a cloak for a jobs massacre across the rail industry.’
