An update on the TU News on ASLEF action on LNER

After we went to press with the September TU News  ASLEF announced that strike action due to take place at weekends between the end of August and mid November 2024 had been suspended see: https://aslef.org.uk/news/lner-strike-action-suspended

 Their statement continued:

“….Drivers working at LNER were due to strike after a long dispute with the company which saw existing agreements broken by the employer.

ASLEF members have consistently worked to negotiate with the company and explain why the breaking of agreements is unacceptable but the company continued to operate inappropriately, including paying driver managers a premium to drive trains, not recruiting enough drivers to run a full service, and trying to push drivers to work outside of agreed rostering systems.

The railway is a safety critical environment and procedures are in place to ensure safe operation. ASLEF had raised safety concerns regarding driver managers ‘dual-rolling’ i.e. driving trains when they should have been available for on-call duties in the case of any incidents.

Mick Whelan, ASLEF general secretary, commented to the media:

“Once again we have demonstrated that by sitting round the table and negotiating, issues on the railway can be resolved in a way that means better workplace practices for rail workers and a better service for the travelling public. ASLEF will continue to campaign for a fully-staffed railway that doesn’t rely on excessive use of driver overtime.

“We continue to operate in good faith and we are pleased to have finally resolved this long-standing issue with LNER of abuse of our agreements. We look forward to normal working resuming.”

ASLEF will always seek to sit down with employers and negotiate fair pay, terms and conditions.

We look to the future where we hope we will see a fully-staffed, integrated railway that prioritises passengers and communities, not profiteers.”