The TUC has called on the government to adopt a positive role in the rail dispute instead of “inflaming tensions” and “threatening to revoke workers’ legal rights”.

Rail workers in Wales have reached agreements with rail operators on pay and job protections and in Scotland there is meaningful negotiation taking place. However, the TUC says this opportunity has been blocked for other rail workers by ministers in Westminster, who “insist on imposing cuts rather than negotiating a future for rail that benefits both rail travellers and staff”.

TUC General Secretary, Frances O’Grady, said:

“The government has the power to help end this dispute. But rather than working in good faith to find a negotiated settlement, ministers are inflaming tensions and trying to pitch worker against worker. Instead of threatening to do a P&O on these workers and rip up their rights, ministers should be getting people around the table to help agree a fair deal.

“Nobody takes strike action lightly. But rail staff have been left with no other option. Many rail staff who will be hit hardest – such as caterers and cleaners – are on low and average earnings. It’s insulting to ask them to take yet another real-terms pay cut when rail companies took £500m in profits during the pandemic. If these cuts go ahead thousands of safety-critical and frontline jobs will be lost, with train services at risk too. We need a better vison for the future of rail than commuters packed on unsafe trains like sardines.”

Network Rail plans to cut annual expenditure by £100m, mainly through the loss of 2,500 rail maintenance jobs. The RMT says this will lead to 670,000 fewer hours of maintenance work annually. Network Rail is also responsible for maintaining signals to ensure trains are on time and prevent collisions, for the electricity supply to the network, and for the safe upkeep of buildings including public spaces like the UK’s largest rail stations.

The Treasury has ordered the Department for Transport (DfT) to slash its annual budget by 10% as part of last year’s Spending Review. Following this, the DfT wrote to train operating companies telling them to plan for major cuts to operating costs. Unions are concerned that the DfT’s demand for cuts signifies an intention to reduce public funding for rail services. With ticket revenue still not fully recovered from the pandemic, this could mean that many rail services are permanently stopped across all parts of the UK.

In a speech on Thursday 16 June, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

“If this dispute cannot be resolved, the government will look at a full range of options to stop the unions hurting the general public, including repealing the ban on transferable staff filling in for striking workers.”

This change to the law would allow employers – beyond just rail, and across the economy – to undermine industrial action by bringing in agency workers in place of regular staff if a workforce took industrial action, says TUC, drawing similarities with the approach taken by P&O, which used agency staff to replace workers in anticipation that unions would oppose plans to cut staff wages.

In May 2022, the TUC published a report, The future of rail funding in the UK. The report recommends:

• Ministers should withdraw requirements for Network Rail to make cuts and provide sufficient funding to maintain safety, improve quality, and expand rail services.
• Network Rail should bring all outsourced services back in-house – directly employing workers to undertake vital renewals (such as replacing end of life tracks) could save more than £115m each year.
• Ministers should integrate all train services under a single public-owned operator, uniting tracks, rolling stock and train services, and recognising that the railways are an essential public service to be run for public benefit with profits reinvested in the service.