by Train drivers and the British government have reached an agreement that could end more than two years of conflict between rail operators and unions, during which widespread strikes have led to weeks of misery for passengers.
Drivers’ union Aslef said on Wednesday it had reached an agreement in principle with the Department for Transport (DfT) that would result in a pay rise of 5% for 2022-23, 4.75% for 2023-24 and 4.5% for 2024-25 – all retrospective and with pension entitlement.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: “The offer is a good offer – a fair offer – and it is what we have always asked for, a clean offer, with no land grabbing on our terms as the companies and the previous government tried to do in April last year.”
He said the offer would now be put to union members and they should accept it. If members agree, it could end the dispute with 16 English rail operators that dates back to July 2022.
During this period, train drivers went on an 18-day strike and imposed a series of overtime bans, bringing large parts of the English rail network and some cross-border services to Scotland and Wales to a halt.
Shortly after the election last month, the new Labour government indicated that it would seek a rapid resolution to the long-running national pay dispute. Several meetings with Labour Party members have taken place in recent weeks.
The latest deal represents an improvement on the previous offer made in April last year, which was rejected by Aslef members. The earlier offer would have given drivers an 8 percent pay rise over two years, but also included a number of changes to working conditions.
Under the previous Conservative government, pay negotiations between drivers, the Department for Transport and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), the representative body for train operators, stalled after the April 2023 offer was rejected. Aslef said in May there had been no meeting with then-rail minister Huw Merriman since January 2023.
Following Labour’s election victory, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh met with rail unions and promised “an era of mature industrial relations”. When negotiations with Aslef resumed last month, meetings were held directly between the union and the Department for Transport; the rail union was no longer involved in the process.
Aslef was the only rail union still unable to agree a collective agreement following extensive industrial action across the industry, which began in June 2022 with strikes by the RMT, which represents train crews, signallers, station staff and maintenance workers.
The RMT was in dispute with Network Rail, which is responsible for infrastructure such as tracks, stations and level crossings, as well as with the English railway companies.
The union agreed a collective agreement with Network Rail in March last year and reached an agreement with RDG in November of the same year. By the time both disputes were resolved, the RMT had already held more than 30 days of strike action on commuter services across the UK, some of which coincided with the Aslef strikes. The RMT is still negotiating pay increases for 2024.
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Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association union agreed to settle their national dispute with the RDG after a collective agreement was reached in February last year. The TSSA agreed a settlement with Network Rail in December 2022.
The rapprochement with Aslef came after the government announced more protection for workers and initial steps towards nationalising the railways in the King’s Speech last month.
Haigh said: “When I took this job, I said I wanted to act quickly and put things right – starting with ending the rail strikes.
“The Conservatives were happy to see the taxpayer pay the price for the prolonged strikes and the suffering of passengers. This Labour Government is doing the right thing and putting passengers first.
“If accepted, this offer would finally end this long-running dispute and allow us to move forward by improving service for passengers with the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation.”
