New pay offer to be put to ScotRail drivers

ScotRail has welcomed driver pay talks progress after the operator made an improved offer to resolve the current dispute, which is due to be put to members this week.

Speaking following talks with ASLEF, ScotRail said its offer recognises the cost-of-living challenges faced by families and delivers good value for the public. ASLEF said it would recommend putting the offer to a referendum of its members and recommend acceptance of the offer itself.

ScotRail’s improved offer includes:

• An increase in basic pay. This is broken down as a 2.2 per cent increase to recognise the cost-of-living challenges (funded by Transport Scotland), and a further 2.8 per cent increase (to be funded by ScotRail), which recognises and rewards the flexibility of rostering arrangements as ScotRail responds to changes in our markets as we emerge from the pandemic.
• An excess revenue share premium, which rewards all colleagues where ScotRail exceeds revenue budget targets. This scheme will also be backdated to 1 April 2022. Backdating to 1 April means staff would already have earned two periods of revenue share as we exceeded targets for those periods – this is £390 (less tax and NI contributions). If this paid out in full, it would be worth an additional £2,535 for every member of staff.
• A five-year commitment to a no-compulsory redundancy agreement.
• A commitment to bring Sundays into the working week within a five-year period with full implementation by the 2027 December timetable. This would require review of terms and conditions with trade union colleagues. A joint working party would be formed to enable all staff to feed in views and at the end staff will have a say on next steps.
• An improvement in maternity and adoption leave payments comprising of: 13 weeks standard pay, then 13 weeks at 50 per cent standard pay, then 13 weeks at statutory maternity pay.
• Sunday working allowance (SWA) increased by 10 per cent.
• An increase in rest-day working payments to £400, with the agreement extended to March 2023 to support the driver training programme.
• An uplift of £500 per year to driver instructor allowance.

Under this offer, basic pay for drivers (excluding trainees and those who are newly qualified) would increase by more than £2,600, taking the salary to £55,264.

A similar offer on pay has also been made to the RMT representing general grades.

Since ASLEF announced it was in dispute with ScotRail, many drivers have made themselves unavailable for rest day working or overtime, which is required to deliver a full timetable due to delays in driver training during the pandemic. ScotRail has introduced a temporary timetable to provide customers with greater reliability.

On Tuesday, ScotRail set out details of its current driver training programme. This can be viewed online.

David Simpson, ScotRail Service Delivery Director, said: “We’ve made a really good offer which recognises the cost-of-living challenges faced by families across the country and delivers good value for the public.

“The feedback we’ve had from many drivers is that they recognise we have made a series of very good offers and we are pleased they will get a say in a referendum.

“The railway plays a vital role in growing the economy and connecting communities. Now more than ever we all need to work together to attract more people to the railway as we recover from the impact of the pandemic.”

Photo credit: ScotRail

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