Britain's rail strike looks set to end soon as unions and government reach deal

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British government ministers have offered British rail drivers a pay rise of more than 14 per cent over three years, a deal reached with rail unions that looks set to end a wave of rail strikes.

The Asleep union leaders said the deal would end the longest pay dispute in British rail history and urged members to accept it in an upcoming vote.

If agreed, the deal would end one of the last outstanding public sector pay disputes that has gripped the country for the past two years. Ministers reached a 22 per cent pay deal with junior doctors last month.

Asleep, which has staged 18 one-day strikes since the conflict began in June 2022, has demanded significant wage increases to help its members overcome their livelihood crisis.

Aslef leader Mick Whelan said: This is a good proposal, a fair proposal and one that we have always demanded. It is a clean proposal and there is no land grabbing on our terms and conditions that the company and the previous government attempted to do in April last year. We will put the proposal to our members and encourage them to accept it.

“If this proposal is accepted, it will end a long-standing dispute and allow us to move forward with improved service outcomes for passengers,” Transport Minister Louise Haigh said.

The government’s partial retroactive payment proposal is 5% for fiscal years 2022-2023, 4.75% for 2023-2024, and 4.5% for 2024-2025. That’s a total of 14.25% over three years.

In April 2023, the Asleps leadership rejected the previous government's offer of an 8% pay rise over two years, because the deal was tied to significant reforms in working practices.

The previous Conservative government and the rail companies argued that the railways needed to cut costs and that drivers had to make major changes to their working practices to negotiate wages.

Helen Watley, the Conservative shadow transport secretary, said scrapping the working practices reforms would create a financial hole that would only lead to higher fares and taxes.

Most drivers are employed by private companies, which operate rail services under contract with the government.

Three transit unions have launched a rail strike in the summer of 2022, amid a dispute over wage increases and potential changes to work practices as the industry seeks to cut costs as ridership declines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Aslef union was the only one still involved in the dispute after the other major transport unions, the RMT and TSSA, agreed to pay deals to end their dispute with the rail company and public infrastructure management company Network Rail.

The government estimated on Wednesday that the economic cost of the two-year rail strike could total $1 billion, including lost spending in the hotel and retail sectors.

It also released industry estimates that the railroads have lost $850 million in revenue since June 2022 due to strikes by multiple unions.

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