The foolishness of the government’s appeasement of the unions is becoming clearer by the day. The 15 per cent pay rise for train drivers had hardly been signed off when Aslef announced a further set of strikes on LNER trains over rostering. Now, it is the turn of the Transport and Salaried Staff Association (TSSA), which represents office workers and senior staff in the rail industry. They are demanding not just a pay rise but also a 35-hour working week and 38 days’ holiday a year – a full ten days above what most people are awarded under their employment contract.
Any genuine private industry which carried on like this, rewarding hefty losses with fat pay rises for staff, would rapidly go bust
If it isn’t already, it will soon become apparent to the government just why the previous administration had pretty well given up speaking to the rail unions. Indulge them and they will merely be back for more, demanding to work ever fewer hours for ever more money – while refusing to budge an inch on restrictive working practices.
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