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From the Telegraph, via MSNTrain union introduced same pension reforms for office staff that drivers are striking over
The train drivers’ union, Aslef, has been accused of “glaring hypocrisy” after imposing the same pension changes on its own office staff as those it is opposing on the railways.
Drivers across England walked out for the eighth time last week, bringing almost all services to a halt.
Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, described the long-running action as a “fight to maintain the pay, terms and conditions, and the pensions of our members”.
Among the reforms they are fighting is a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65 for most staff.
But the union’s accounts reveal that the retirement age in the pension scheme it offers for its own staff has been raised to 66.
Chris Loder, a Tory MP▸ , former railwayman and member of the Transport Select Committee, said: “This is glaring hypocrisy from Aslef. They clearly recognise their own pension scheme needs reform – but they are prepared to spoil the travel plans of millions to stop the same badly-needed changes happening on the railways.”
Aslef has been kept largely at arm’s length by train bosses as they focus their attention on striking a deal with the larger Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT▸ ).
But the RMT dealt passengers a huge blow on Friday as they rejected a 9 per cent pay rise by train operators and Network Rail.
The move raises the prospect of more industrial action after one of the most disrupted periods on the railways.
Train drivers, who earn an average £60,000 per year for in many cases a four-day week, enjoy generous defined-benefit pensions of a type that has almost vanished in the rest of the private sector. But the scheme has a reported funding gap of £5-6 billion.
To close it, managers are seeking to increase pay-outs to pensioners in line with the Consumer Price Index measure of inflation, instead of the higher Retail Price Index, as well as upping the retirement age for the majority.
Mr Whelan has pledged to “fight” the changes, telling a rally in August: “No one’s going to attack our terms and conditions while we’re fighting, no workers are going to be sacked while we’re fighting, no pensions will be slashed while we’re fighting.”
Aslef is also to ballot drivers on the London Underground for strikes over pensions, even though no specific changes have yet been proposed to the Tube’s scheme. “If TfL» or the Government try to force through detrimental changes, the result will be sustained and hard-hitting industrial action,” Finn Brennan, the union’s London organiser, said.
The union’s latest annual accounts, quietly published last month, show that Aslef recently changed the in-house pension scheme it offers for its own staff, raising the retirement age to 66 and changing increases in payments “to be in line with CPI inflation, or 2.5 per cent if lower.” The scheme is also moving to a less generous “career average” arrangement for benefit accrual.
As a result, the accounts say, contributions paid by Aslef to staff members’ pensions will fall from 37 or 39.5 per cent of an employee’s salary to just 19.6 or 22.1 per cent. As with the wider rail industry, the action appears to have been taken to close a funding gap in the scheme, of £11.5 million in Aslef’s case.
Mr Whelan, the highest-paid member of the pension scheme, received pension contributions from the union of just under £29,000 in 2020-21, according to the accounts – almost as much as the entire national average full-time wage that year. This sum was in addition to his salary of £108,610.
‘The dispute today is only about pay’
Aslef is also seeking above-inflation pay rises for drivers, saying most have not had a pay rise since 2019. However, most train driver salaries, unlike those of other workforces in dispute, have largely kept pace with prices because of above-inflation increases in previous years.
The railways have lost around 20 per cent of their revenues with a post-pandemic decline in commuting and Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, has warned that there is not “a bottomless pit” of money for pay rises.
A spokesman for Aslef said: “The dispute today is only about pay and not about anything else.”
The spokesman refused to respond to the allegation of hypocrisy.
And thisMick Lynch forced to reject pay deal as rail strikers plot to bring down capitalism
Mick Lynch has been forced to reject a pay deal that would have ended the rail strikes following a backlash from union members plotting to bring down capitalism.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) general secretary turned down a wage increase of 9pc on Friday, despite his own deputies helping to draft the agreement attached to it.
Mr Lynch said: "Our members cannot accept the ripping up of their terms and conditions.”
The refusal to even put the offer to a ballot of the RMT’s 40,000 members has now left Government and industry sources questioning whether Mr Lynch has lost control of the union and is only “leader of the RMT in name”.
A Whitehall source said: "His statement today reads like a hostage note. It's probably a matter of time before he goes.”
An internal memo, seen by The Telegraph, reveals the pressure Mr Lynch is under from roughly 450 branch leaders.
The activists order Mr Lynch to do more to hasten “the suppression of the capitalist system by a socialistic order of society”.
They also call for rail strikes every Saturday to advance their agenda, and demand Mr Lynch increase members' fees to establish a war chest to pay strikers.
The RMT's national executive committee will meet on Feb 15 to consider announcing fresh strike dates. Mr Lynch has also committed to discuss the setting up of a strike fund.
Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, said: “The RMT’s rejection of these best and final offers is a kick in the teeth for passengers across the country and the RMT's own members, who having been ordered to take strike action are now being blocked from having a say on their own future.
"The RMT’s leaders should have had the courage to allow their own members to have the chance to vote on their own pay and conditions, rather than making that decision for them behind closed doors.
“It is time for those union leaders to face the reality – our railways are currently not financially sustainable, reform is essential. I have played my part. I met union leaders. The Rail Minister and I facilitated regular meetings between all parties. We guaranteed fair and reasonable offers on pay and reform. It is now clear that no realistic offer is ever going to be good enough for the RMT leadership.”
In leaked feedback from branch leaders, Mr Lynch is told: “We believe that these offers do nothing to offer our members job security and are simply an attack on terms and conditions, attacking everything from our members roles, their work life balance to their ability to have a safe and proper break, all attached to a pay cut.”
East Midlands Central refers to changes to working practices as a “bonfire of TOC▸ [train operator company] members' terms and conditions”.
It calls for “strikes on every Saturday for the duration of the dispute apart from May. [And] a continuous three-day strike starting on the first Monday of May”.
The Newcastle branch says: “Having consulted the union's rule book... [it] stipulates the following – to work for the suppression of the capitalist system by a socialistic order of society and to improve the conditions and protect the interests of its members.
“It is evident from our perspective that we have failed in our pursuit to deliver these key objectives, demands and principles and as such, Newcastle rail and catering branch reaffirms its opening statement in that we reject these proposals outright and continue with an industrial strategy until such a time as we prevail.”
The RMT’s decision to reject what Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, referred to as a “best and final” offer will come as a hammer blow to beleaguered commuters, who have suffered from the worst wave of industrial action for a generation.
In January it appeared that both sides were nearing a deal as both sides agreed to a statement that “we are working jointly towards a revised offer”.
RMT negotiators went through the conditions attached to the on a “line by line basis”, according to one source.
And the RMT’s approach contrasts with that of the TSSA» , which on Friday said thousands of its members would be able to vote on a near-identical pay deal.
A senior rail source said: “This is a union which makes much of its democratic credentials. Yet after weeks of dithering and delay, fewer than five hundred activists and officials have rejected an offer on behalf of tens of thousands of ordinary members, who were denied a say.
“That is in stark contrast to the TSSA. They are making sure their members get a say on the offer we made. That’s what a democratic organisation does.
“It’s time to get real, the railway is on the brink. Since the strikes began staff have burnt through thousands in lost pay and the best part of half a billion pounds has vanished in revenue, we simply can not continue on as we are. So far only the TSSA appears to get it.”
The RMT declined to announce further strike dates and said it would seek further talks to work towards a negotiated settlement.
Mr Lynch added: "We have carried out an extensive listening exercise and our members have spoken.
"If our union did accept these offers, we would see a severe reduction in scheduled maintenance tasks, making the railways less safe, the closure of all ticket offices and thousands of jobs stripped out of the industry when the railways need more investment not less.
"Our industrial campaign will continue for as long as it takes to get a negotiated settlement that meets our members' reasonable expectations on jobs, pay and working conditions."
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