Plan for strike action could affect Caithness rail services
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Plan for further strike action to force an increase in overtime payments may affect local services and make the railway’s "significant financial challenge worse".
That is the view of ScotRail bosses as the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) ballots ticket examiners for strike action in an attempt to force an increase in overtime payments. The ballot runs until Thursday, April 8.
Phil Campbell, head of customer operations, said: “Industrial action from the RMT will not address the significant financial challenge that Scotland’s railway faces - it will make it worse.
“Strike action over increases in overtime payments would be wrong for staff and passengers when the railway faces the biggest financial crisis in its history and is almost entirely reliant on emergency taxpayer and public support to pay wages and keep people in jobs."
Thanks to emergency Scottish Government support, ScotRail claims to have cut no permanent jobs, reduced wages, cut terms and conditions, used furlough or cut any employee benefits.
A further agreement is being worked on with the Scottish Government to run until September 2021. The government announced this week that ScotRail will be operated by a public body when the Abellio franchise ends in March 2022.
Passenger numbers and revenue remain more than 90 per cent down compared to before the pandemic. Coronavirus restrictions, including the instruction for people to work from home, have resulted in the number of people travelling with ScotRail to plummet.
The train operator said that at a time when ScotRail faces its "biggest financial crisis" in the history of the railway, anything that damages the railway’s reputation as a reliable way to travel risks recovery.
Last week, RMT conductors voted for strike action over the same issue. ScotRail said it is the wrong decision for conductors, who will lose money through any action without gaining anything in return, and wrong for customers too.
The train operator has said it will do everything it can to minimise the impact on its passengers, particularly those key workers who are reliant on its services, but cancellations are likely.
