The RMT union has suspended all industrial action on Network Rail after receiving a new offer but strikes involving train operating companies (TOCs) are still due to go ahead.
RMT members employed by the rail infrastructure operator were to walk out for 24 hours from 2am next Thursday (16 March), followed by a series of seven day bans on overtime, rest day working ban and non-rostered Sunday working.
However, in a brief announcement on Tuesday evening, the union said its National Executive Committee had ‘taken the decision to suspend all industrial action on Network Rail following receipt of a new offer from the employer’.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch
The union said the new offer 'involves extra money and is not conditional on accepting Network Rail’s modernising maintenance agenda, which RMT does not endorse'.
It added that the offer amounts to an uplift on salaries of between 14.4% for the lowest paid grades to 9.2% for the highest paid, with 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 union said.
All the figures quoted appear to be over two years.
Network Rail and the TOCs' body, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), had offered a 5% pay rise for 2022 and a further 4% for 2023, which the RMT rejected last month, describing it as a ‘dreadful offer’.
At the time, Transport secretary Mark Harper incorrectly described these as 'best and final offers', adding, also incorrectly, that it was ‘now clear that no realistic offer is ever going to be good enough for the RMT leadership’.
Reports have suggested that the new Network Rail offer does not put more money on the table but amends the changes in working practices that were attached as a condition.
RMT members working for the 14 TOCs are still due to hold 24-hour strikes action on Thursday16 March and Saturday 18 March and on again on Thursday 30 March and Saturday 1 April.
RDG in disarray
The details of the improved offer appear to have blindsided the RDG. Following the RMT's announcement that it was suspending action on Network Rail and putting the new offer to a referendum, it ‘train operating staff will rightly be asking why their union continues to deny them the opportunity to have their say on our equivalent offer’.
However, this appears to be based on speculation that the pay offer remained the same, it is clear that the RDG has attached a significant number of changes to working conditions to its pay offer.
The RDG subsequently invited the RMT to talks 'on the condition that the planned strike action on 16 and 18 March is suspended,' according to the union.
However, the RDG subsequently confirmed that talks would go ahead on Thursday, saying it had 'made clear to the RMT leadership that meaningful progress can only be made if they remove the threat of strikes hanging over our passengers before it is too late to avoid disruption'.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: 'Network Rail have made a new and improved offer and now our members will decide whether to accept it.
'We will continue our campaign for a negotiated settlement on all aspects of the railway dispute.'
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