Labour move to resolve strikes – but at what cost?
If pay deals lead to more strike action, rather than a reprieve for patients and passengers, the new government could be in for a bumpy run-up to the autumn budget.
The government says it has agreed a pay deal that the train drivers’ union Aslef will recommend to its members, after two years of turmoil.
The transport secretary Louise Haigh said this was an example of the new government’s promise to “move and fix things”, and it is understood to be around a 15% rise over three years.
But this breakthrough has not stopped Aslef now announcing that its drivers on the LNER line between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh will walk out every weekend between September and November – 22 days in total.
The LNER localised dispute is not about pay, but over what the drivers allege is bullying and breaking agreements by management at the firm which has been publicly owned since 2018.
Any hope that a pay deal with the 14 operating companies would put an end to disruption on passenger services has therefore been dashed.
And it creates a headache for the Labour government, which wants to bring the other rail companies into public hands as contracts expire – claiming it will improve passenger experience.
The Conservatives have seized on the timing, with one of the leadership candidates James Cleverly saying Labour had been “played by its union paymasters”.
The opposition has also claimed that Aslef, whose 21,000 drivers earn an average £49,000 a year, had been offered the pay deal without changes to working practices – a major sticking point under the last Conservative government.
Labour’s offer is in three phases: 5% for 2022-3, 4.75% for 2023-4 and 4.5% for 2024-5 all backdated. Leader Mick Whelan called it a “fair offer, without a land grab for our terms and conditions”. The deal could be worth £100m, it is claimed.
But already Mick Lynch, the boss of the RMT which has 40,000 members, has told The Times his members – who brokered a lower deal last November – would want the same.
Then there’s the hugely damaging industrial action by junior doctors, beginning in 2022, which have led to tens of thousands of cancelled appointments. Last month, Labour struck an improved pay deal with junior doctors in England worth 22% over two years, which is being put to BMA members this month.
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The chancellor said it was “the start of a new relationship between the government and NHS staff”, and that the dispute had cost taxpayers £1.7bn.
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Today it has emerged that GPs who were awarded 7% are now threatening to strike too, and demanding 10.7% – saying it would restore their real-terms income to 2018 levels.
Labour has made controversial choices to save money, such as the decision to remove the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners. Resolving strikes was one of the platforms they were elected on, and ministers argue it saves money.
But if pay deals lead to more strike action, rather than a reprieve for patients and passengers, the new government could be in for a bumpy run-up to the autumn budget.
