Striking train drivers have sparked fury as they are tipped to see their average salary increase to more than £80,000 while continuing to cause major disruption across the rail network.
LNER drivers on just a four-day week are set to see their salaries rise by around £10,000 to reach £81,278 after the recently-elected Labour Government brokered a deal to fork out an above-inflation pay increase of 15 per cent.
Yet despite accepting a deal to increase wages which will be backdated 5 per cent pay rise for 2019 to 2022, 4.75 per cent for 2022 to 2024 and a further 4.5 per cent for 2024 to 2025, train drivers announced they would be striking for 22 days in the coming months.
Disruption is expected on the East Coast main line every Saturday and Sunday from September 1 to November 10.
Fury erupts over out-of-touch striking train divers who average £80k in four-day workweekPA/GETTY“We put our members first,” said Nigel Roebuck, lead negotiator at the drivers’ union Aslef.
“We’ve now got a toxic situation — we’ve got morale in the gutter among our members.”
In addition to the pay rise, train drivers have reportedly received a number of absurd perks.
According to Centre for Policy Studies Director Robert Colvile, such work advantages include being able to reset the clock on your work break if your boss interrupts it to say hello and the option to cancel your weekend shift because you prefer to watch the Euros.
Expressing his outrage over the situation, Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow business secretary, said the resolution amounted to “payback” for the unions.
Mick Whelan on the Aslef picket line
PA
Hollinrake said: “We always knew it was going to be this way. But I honestly didn’t think it would be as blatant as this. The unions have been funding the Labour Party for a long time. It’s payback.
“I can’t even imagine someone like Gordon Brown would have done this.
“I imagine that Gordon would have taken a much more careful approach to a settlement with the unions. He would have wanted his pound of flesh.”
Also expressing outrage across social media, retired journalist Colin Brazier wrote on Twitter: “The Government is using your taxpayer’s cash to ensure train drivers will now earn, on average, £69,000 a year, for a 4-day, 35-hour working week.
“And still they strike. In which parallel universe is this considered a ‘good deal’?”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:GB News commentator Sophie Corcoran added: “Unions are not ‘fighting for the working classes’
“They are fighting for train drivers who earn double the average national salary - to strike until they get even more.
“Leaving minimum wage earners stranded on the platforms having to fork out for expensive taxis.”
However, leaping to the defence of the drivers, one user wrote: “The train drivers one is so weird to me. In charge of 100s of lives at 100mph and you don't want them well rested and well paid?”
Another user said: “The timetables don’t work without the overtime. Train companies are rightly asking for more drivers working flexible shifts instead of overtime.”
LNER train drivers will strike for 22 days in the coming months
GETTY IMAGES
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Train drivers have not had a pay rise for five years.
“Salaries also vary and not all drivers will be on the highest rate.
“This offer is below the rate of inflation and costs significantly less than the economic damage strikes have caused over the previous two years.
“That’s not to mention the impact it has had on hardworking people’s day-to-day lives.
“This Government is doing the right thing by ending strikes and returning much-needed certainty for passengers across the country.”