Aslef train drivers announce another week-long overtime ban at 15 operators

Train drivers at 15 operators have announced they will be taking part in another week-long overtime ban as part of an ongoing dispute over pay. Members of the union Aslef have previously engaged in four week-long bans stretching back to May.

The next week of action will be from August 7 to August 12, after “another round of decisive ballots” of members. The union said its members have not had a pay rise since 2019, and that the ban will “seriously disrupt services” due to train lines’ reliance on overtime to run services.

Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said the union does not want to inconvenience people, but the train companies and government “have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%”.

The companies due to be impacted are: Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; Cross Country; East Midlands Railway; Greater Anglia; Great Western Railway; GTR Great Northern Thameslink; Island Line; LNER; Northern Trains; Southeastern; Southern/Gatwick Express; South Western Railway main line; TransPennine Express; and West Midlands Trains.

Mr Whelan said: “The proposal they made on Wednesday 26 April – of 4% with a further rise dependent, in a naked land grab, on drivers giving up terms & conditions for which we have fought, and negotiated, for years – was not designed to be rejected.

“We have not heard a word from the employers since then – we haven’t had a meeting, or a phone call, a text message, nor an email – for the three months, and we haven’t sat down with the government since Friday 6 January. That shows how little the companies and the government care about passengers and staff. They are happy to let this go on and on.

“But we are determined to get a proper increase – a fair pay rise – for men and women who haven’t had one for four years while inflation has been roaring away. Our members, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy back in 2019.”