The long-running train drivers’ pay dispute is likely to be resolved in the coming weeks, after both the Department for Transport and ASLEF hailed “constructive” talks.
Following Labour’s victory in the general election, the drivers’ union met with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh who agreed for a new team led by Alex Hynes, the DfT’s director general for rail services, to negotiate with ASLEF.
The management side had previously been represented by the Rail Delivery Group, but a union source said: “To use a fond expression, their future is behind them.”
On July 23, the two sides held a full meeting, which concluded without a resolution to the dispute.
A DfT spokesman said: "The Transport Secretary has been clear she wants to reset industrial relations for the benefit of passengers and the workforce.
"Today officials resumed talks with ASLEF, holding a constructive meeting as we look to resolve this long-running dispute.
“Further conversations will be held in the coming weeks.”
The dispute saw 14 national one-day strikes in 2022 and 2023. In December 2023, ASLEF changed tack and called a rolling programme of stoppages with different operators’ drivers called out on different days. This was then repeated in February, April and May 2024.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the morning after the meeting, ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan confirmed there were no plans for further strikes “at this moment in time”, adding: “There is no reason to strike if people are talking to you.”
He told listeners: “Anybody meeting us at all is a major step forward. We went through a period of time when nobody in the government would talk to us, so we hadn’t seen the former Secretary of State since December 2022 and the Rail Minister since January 2023.
“The fact that the Labour party met with us within seven days of taking power and put a team in place to talk to us I think is a major step forward, and the whole tone has changed.”
It is understood that while the Labour government wants a speedy resolution to the dispute, both it and DfT officials would prefer for the terms of the settlement to be thrashed out over a series of spaced-out meetings — to avoid the perception that ASLEF’s demands are immediately being met.
ASLEF is seeking a pay rise backdated to 2019 and covering the period until April 2024. A deal for the current financial year is likely to be negotiated separately. The union also wants this to be entirely de-coupled from changes to working practices, terms and conditions, a principle which Labour is believed to have agreed to.
ASLEF has declined to put a percentage figure on its preferred pay rise. While drivers are unlikely to get a rise that reflects the full extent of inflation, which hit double figures last year, Whelan has spoken of putting “a dent” in the rising cost of living.
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