RAIL workers have voted overwhelming to accept an offer to end their 18-month dispute over pay and conditions.
The RMT union, which represents 20,000 crew and station staff, drew up a “memorandum of understanding” with employers on the offer earlier this month.
The deal is understood to include a backdated pay rise of 5 per cent for last year and extended guarantees over jobs until the end of 2024.
The scrapping of widely condemned plans to close railway ticket offices also helped break the deadlock.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Our members have spoken in huge numbers to accept this offer and I want to congratulate them on their steadfastness in this long industrial campaign.
“We will be negotiating further with the train operators over reforms they want to see, and we will never shy away from vigorously defending our members’ terms and conditions, now or in the future.
“This campaign shows that sustained strike action and unity gets results and our members should be proud of the role they have played in securing this deal.”
RMT has staged intermittent strikes since June last year including almost a month of industrial action across the 14 English train operators over last Christmas and New Year, after rejecting a 9 per cent pay offer for its members in March.
It did not recommend the new pay deal as it was below inflation, but Mr Lynch said: “There will be a lot of back pay for our members because they haven’t had a pay rise for so long, and we’ve still got to deal with pay issues for this year, for the 2023 year, and for the next year which is coming up quickly over the horizon.”
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “This is welcome news for passengers and a significant step towards resolving industrial disputes on the railway, giving workers a pay rise before Christmas and a pathway to delivering long overdue reforms.”
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operating companies, said: “This welcome vote from RMT members will unlock a pay rise for our people, and means that fair agreements have now been reached with three out of the four unions involved in the recent industrial dispute.”
