Latest Network Rail pay offers “bake-in real terms pay cuts”

TSSA has received improved pay offers from Network Rail following a day of talks with the company, however the offers still fall well below the expectations of TSSA members, with the union saying they “bake-in real terms pay cuts”.

A pay offer of 3% has been made for management grades and 4% for general grades, with the potential for more if ‘productivity’ targets are met. 

These offers came after TSSA’s successful ballot results, published yesterday.

Yesterday, TSSA members across the company voted in favour of strike action and action short of strike. Despite nearly 70% of managers voting to strike, the ballot of management grades 1-4 fell short of the legal threshold by less than 2% - a handful of votes – but the result is significant as it’s the first time this group of staff – which includes some senior management roles – have voted for strike action. 

Manuel Cortes, TSSA General Secretary, said:  “These latest offers don’t come close to what our Network Rail (NR) members expect. After years of pay freezes, these latest proposals will only bake-in real terms pay cuts for everyone across NR.  

"However, we note that after over a decade of a commitment by NR bosses to no compulsory redundancies this is back on the table. Frankly, the company only threatened compulsory redundancies to seek to cow our members into accepting a rubbish pay deal. The truth is now out, there's no need for compulsory redundancies and the challenge for NR fat cats is to now deliver a pay increase which decreases the number of our members having to visit a food bank or struggling to make ends meet. 

“Our reps will now consider these offers which come with more than 50 strings attached. The company expects our union to consider the dispute over. It isn’t.   

“NR top brass needs to wake up. From their managers right through to support and front-line staff– rail staff across NR have had enough.”