Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, also warned that major government reforms to the sector that will standardise rail staff working terms and conditions will also come at a cost.
Last year, the previous transport secretary Louise Haigh handed drivers a near 15 per cent boost to their salaries stretching back over three years in a move that ended more than two years of train strikes.
Asked whether he anticipated more difficult talks on the forthcoming pay settlement, Whelan said: “I don’t want to appear antagonistic, we don’t want to start the conversation off on the basis that we’re threatening [anything].
Whelan defended the salaries paid to train drivers in the UK, which at an average of £59,000 a year are the highest across Europe, insisting that his members are “low down the food chain” when compared with executives in the rail industry, who are paid “six or seven figure salaries”.
“I’ve had those debates, where people say ‘Oh you’re paid too much’. If we don’t take a pay rise, will these companies give it to others? It’s not about redistribution, it’s not about levelling up. It’s about ‘we don’t want them to have it [a pay rise], and we don’t want you to have one [a rise],’” he added.
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The unions wants to end the practice of train drivers with the same levels of experience being paid salaries that differ between rail operators. The reforms would also involve hiring extra workers to properly staff rosters, which would come at a cost to the public purse.
He added: “The reality will be, what will they [the Government] want out of the harmonisation process that arises out of GBR? Now, if you want massive productivity, there’s an opportunity cost to that. If you want to rationalize the mess of the last 23 years, there is a cost to it. We remain aspirational.”
As it stands, train drivers working under the 32 train operating companies can have as many as three different sets of salary scales and terms and conditions under the same operator.
Asked what its optimal outcome would be for a standardised set of terms and conditions, Whelan replied: “We have a charter. Our ambition is retirement at 55 but I’m not going to see that in my lifetime or in 10 lifetimes. We’ll keep banging on the door, but we’re not unrealistic about it.
Aslef also wants to remove rest day working, where train operators have relied on drivers to work overtime to fill slots. For major operators that do not roster Sundays as part of the usual working week, such as Avanti on the West Coast Mainline, this has led to cancellations and poor service levels as drivers have sometimes refused to work on their days off.
Asked if he envisages conflict with the Government over workers’ terms under GBR, Whelan added: “The real problem here is it’s not just train drivers. There are 300,000 associated workers in the industry. So you can’t have 14 sets of train managers or guards on different conditions, you can’t have the shunters and fitters on different conditions.”
“All we’ve ever wanted is a fair shake,” Whelan said. “And most workers, regardless of what they earn, their aspiration is to stand still or get slightly more or improve their conditions.”
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