How striking train drivers’ pay has risen by up to 62% in recent years… more than double the rate of inflation over the same period, as rail commuters brace for ‘Tragic Thursday’
- Average train driver’s salary increased by 34 per cent since 2012, figures show
- The highest increases across 15 operators were 55 per cent and 62 per cent
- It means average salary is now £60,055, up from £44,985 some ten years ago
Striking train drivers have enjoyed bumper pay hikes of up to 62 per cent in recent years – more than double the rate of inflation over the same period.
Industry figures obtained by the Daily Mail show the average driver’s salary has surged by more than a third – 34 per cent – since 2012.
But the highest increases across 15 train operators covering most of the country were 55 per cent and 62 per cent.
By comparison, the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation over the decade amounts to about 27 per cent.
Industry figures obtained by the Daily Mail show the average driver’s salary has surged by more than a third – 34 per cent – since 2012 (Pictured: RMT boss Mick Lynch on the picket line on Tuesday)
Striking train drivers have enjoyed bumper pay hikes of up to 62 per cent in recent years – more than double the rate of inflation over the same period (Pictured: Striking drivers on the picket line)
It means the average salary is now £60,055 – up from £44,985 ten years ago – with a fifth of train drivers on £70,000 or more.
The amounts do not include overtime, rest-day working and other generous allowances for doing unsociable hours.
More than 20,000 drivers go on strike today amid a bitter pay dispute between industry bosses and their union Aslef.
It wants salary rises in line with the rate of inflation, currently 10.7 per cent, despite the inflation-busting pay packets Aslef members have enjoyed for years.
Ministers are preparing to go to war with the union if it snubs an offer, which would on average be worth more than £2,000.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper has warned there isn’t ‘a bottomless pit’ of money for pay rises.
Sources say government officials and industry chiefs found Aslef boss Mick Whelan ‘deeply unpleasant’ in recent meetings.
Mr Whelan said last night: ‘The situation is getting worse and my members now want to go harder and faster because of the lack of progress.’
Fellow rail union the RMT has snubbed an offer from Network Rail worth 14 per cent to its lower-paid workers.
Union leader Mick Lynch joined a picket line outside Euston station in London yesterday.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said: ‘Many in the public sector would look on with envy at such generous packages.
More than 20,000 drivers go on strike today amid a bitter pay dispute between industry bosses and their union Aslef (Pictured: Deserted Reading train station amid strikes on Tuesday)
‘It’s becoming obvious that rail sector strike action is following the hard-Left ideology of trying to bring an elected Tory Government down, rather than it being a serious dispute over what is, and always has been, a very generous pay package.’
It comes after the Mail revealed how 250 signallers and track workers represented by the RMT earn £100,000 or more, and around a quarter £60,000 or more.
British workers at online giant Amazon will go on strike for the first time this month.
Members of the GMB union based at a Coventry warehouse will walk out on January 25 in a dispute over pay.
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