Train guards will get a £300 bonus every time they work on a Saturday under new plans approved by the Transport Secretary Louise Haigh.
The agreement was reached last month as train operator CrossCountry attempted to stop staff from going on strike every Saturday.
Staff at CrossCountry, which runs between Penzance and Aberdeen, usually work four-day weeks and had been using managerial staff to plug gaps in their workforce – much to the fury of the RMT union.
The new deal will see staff receive a £300 bonus and their pay at the normal rate until the middle of next month.
News of the agreement comes just a month after the government agreed huge pay rises to avert the threat of strike action.
The new agreement will see Guards and other rail workers receive a 9.5% pay rise over the next two years.
A DfT spokesperson said: ‘While this is a local matter for CrossCountry, it’s crucial that passengers receive a more reliable service, on every day of the week – something our overhaul of the railways will help deliver.”
The announcement of Saturday bonuses caps off a difficult week for the Transport Secretary, who has received a public dressing down from her boss the Prime Minister.
Earlier this week, Haigh had called ferry operator P&O a “rogue operator” and called for a boycott of the company following their decision to fire 200 staff in 2022 and replace them with mostly cheaper, foreign workers.
The move was criticised on both sides of the house at the time, with the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner one of the most vocal.
The practise of hiring and firing is one of the things Labour will look to legislate against with their Employment Rights Bill, a key part of their manifesto.
But Ms Haigh’s comments were slapped down by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as he gets set to hold a key investment summit, of which P&O are said to be contributing around £1 billion.
In light of the comments, No.10 were quick to distance themselves, insisting that it was not the position of the government and are understood to have held high-level discussions with senior members of the Dubai owned parent company DP World, to stop them pulling their investment.
When asked about the row on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, and a key part in drafting the government’s Employment Rights bill said: “We are stopping fire and rehire, DP World is coming to the summit and the investment will go ahead.
“We’re a serious Government, we know sometimes little things like this crop up. We’ll fix them – we’ll fix it and we have.
“You just have to step back and say this is a government that’s improving people’s security at work across the board and attracting the key flagship investments necessary to take this country forward. That’s what it’s about.”
One omission from the summit is Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.
The owner of X has consistently been critical of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and of UK government policy, predicting that the UK is set to experience civil war and calling Starmer “two-tier Keir” in relation to his actions on justice.
When asked about the omission, Reynolds said: “I’m not going to comment on particular invitations for particular personnel, I’m not going to comment on the reasons for any specific person.
“This is about who can bring the kind of investments that can make the biggest difference to the UK and working people’s lives.”
