Train strikes: Aslef drivers announce new date

Train drivers at more than a dozen companies will strike on Friday, 1 September and refuse to work overtime on Saturday, 2 September, their union Aslef has said.

It marks the latest industrial action in Aslef's long-running pay dispute.

The overtime ban will coincide with a strike by other rail workers such as guards and station staff in the RMT union, in a separate dispute.

The RMT also has a strike on Saturday, 26 August.

Aslef's latest action follows a series of six-day overtime bans this summer, which have caused reductions in services and cancellations.

The companies affected are:

Aslef's general secretary Mick Whelan said the train companies and the government had "forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers".

He added: "Train drivers at these companies have not had a pay rise for four years - since 2019 - while inflation has rocketed."

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) called further strike action "unnecessary", adding: "The union leadership has its head in the sand and refuses to put our fair and reasonable offer to their members."

The offer to Aslef presented a series of changes to working practices which would enable pay rises of 4% for one year and 4% the next.

Progress in both disputes with Aslef and the RMT ground to a halt in the spring, when union bosses rejected the latest proposals from industry negotiators in the RDG.

The government and the train companies continue to urge unions to give their members a vote on those offers.

Unions have called for improved proposals to be put forward.

The RDG said: "We want to give our staff a pay increase, but it has always been linked to implementing necessary, sensible reforms that would enhance services for our customers."

But Mr Whelan said: "We haven't heard a word from the employers. We haven't had a meeting, a phone call, a text message, or an email since Wednesday, 26 April, and we haven't had any contact with the government since Friday, 6 January.

"This shows how the contempt in which the companies, and the government, hold passengers and staff and public transport in Britain."

A spokesman for the Department for Transport suggested that unions were "deliberately targeting the Bank Holiday weekend", which for many is the last weekend of the school summer holidays.

"The government has played its part to try and end these disputes by facilitating fair and reasonable pay offers, taking train drivers' average salaries from £60,000 to £65,000, but union leaders refuse to give their members a vote," he added.