Labour’s deal to end years of rail strikes will include payouts for train drivers who have quit the profession.
Rail workers were offered a 14pc pay rise over three years on August 14, in an effort to end two years of crippling strikes. The above-inflation increase will see the average driver’s salary rise from £60,000 to just under £70,000. However, because the pay deal is backdated from April 2022, it will also cover drivers who have left their jobs in the last two years.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader, said Labour was “throwing money at unions like confetti”.
He added: “If [the train driver pay deal] is backdated, then a whole bunch of people will end up getting paid who have left. It’s a very big payment at a time we’re being told we can’t afford it. Rachel Reeves pleads that she’s got a budget black hole but she’s just made it a bit worse.”
“And other public sector workers will now ask: why not them?”
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, signed off on an above-inflation salary increase of 5.5pc for millions of public sector staff at a cost of nearly £10bn. Last month, Labour offered junior doctors a 22pc increase over two years to end NHS strikes.
The train driver offer is for a 5pc backdated pay rise for 2022 to 2023, a 4.75pc rise for 2023 to 2024, and 4.5pc increase for 2024 to 2025 – twice the projected rate of inflation. It is a total of 14.25pc over three years.
Aslef, the train drivers’ union, welcomed the “no-strings” deal which saw ministers ditch Conservative demands for an end to generous working practices, including a four-day week totalling 35 hours.
Train drivers have also retained so-called Spanish practices, which give them the right to re-start their lunch break if spoken to by a manager.
Mark Harper, the former Tory transport secretary, had been demanding modernising reforms including contracts that cover a seven-day week.
Bridget Phillipson, the education Secretary, refused to say where the money for the train driver pay deal would come from. The Government spends £12bn a year subsidising the rail industry, leaving open the possibility that taxpayers will fund the pay rise.
The Chancellor has justified generous pay deals across the public sector by arguing fresh strikes would cost the economy more in the long run.
But it has sparked fears that she will have to put up taxes in the autumn to cover the spiralling cost of the Government’s wage bill.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Train drivers have not had a pay rise for five years. This offer costs significantly less than the economic damage strikes have caused over the previous two years. That’s not to mention the impact it has had on hard-working people’s day-to-day lives.
“This government is doing the right thing by ending strikes and returning a much-needed certainty for passengers across the country.”
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