Will 10% pay offer end the rail strike deadlock? Officials 'look into improving ... trends now
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A pay offer of 10 per cent could be tabled by ministers in a bid to reach a breakthrough with the RMT rail union, it emerged today.
Sources said Whitehall officials were looking into whether the existing 8 per cent offer over two years to workers for 14 train companies could be improved.
Rail minister Huw Merriman is understood to have left open the possibility of an extra 2 per cent being found during a meeting with RMT boss Mick Lynch yesterday.
The offer would be for 2022 and 2023, backdated to January last year.
Demands from the Government for driver-only operated trains as part of any agreement could also be watered down to get a deal over the line.
Ministers inserted the driver-only clause at the eleventh hour last month, scuppering a potential deal, but are now softening their stance. Around 55 per cent of passengers already travel on door-only services.
A pay offer of 10 per cent could be tabled by ministers in a bid to reach a breakthrough with the RMT rail union, it emerged today (pictured: Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT on the picket line outside Euston station)
Even if a deal is struck between the RMT and 14 train operators, facilitated by ministers, the union’s dispute with Network Rail will continue.
The RMT has snubbed a 9 per cent pay increase offer for 2022 and 2023.
However, more than a third of Network Rail workers
