by Industrial action has been ongoing since Aslef last rejected a wage offer in April 2023. Recently, the union’s tactic has been to spread the strikes over several days, with a different operator affected each day.
The package included successive pay rises of four percent each, which would bring the average annual salary of a driver to £65,000, according to the Rail Delivery Group, which represents rail companies.
A major point of contention, however, was the conditions attached to it.
Railway companies and the conservative government argued that changes in the way they work, such as training and duty rosters, were necessary to make railway operations more reliable and save money.
They claimed that hard-pressed taxpayers had to contribute millions every week to keep services running.
However, Aslef argued that drivers were being asked to make too many sacrifices in exchange for too small a pay increase.
The dispute had been stalled for a year before progress was made in May. But before a solution could be found, new elections were called.
Under the previous government, negotiations were led by the Rail Delivery Group, but ministers had to approve any pay offer as the government took de facto control of the railways during the Covid pandemic.
When the Labour government was elected in July, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said she was “committed to reshaping industrial relations”.
The Rail Delivery Group has since been excluded from the negotiations; instead, officials from the Department for Transport led the talks in July.
