rail - rmt votes for action
WORKERS, JUNE 2004 ISSUE
RMT members at Network Rail have voted for industrial action over pensions, travel concessions and pay. The company has closed its final-salary pension scheme to new members and imposed an inferior scheme on new starters.
Only those who joined the company before April 1996 will benefit from travel concessions, including free travel up to 40 miles to work — a necessity for workers who have to travel a long way to stations. Yet bosses retain their first-class concessionary rail travel after retirement!
Members have been incensed that the five bosses at Network Rail are to receive £350,000 in bonuses (20% of their 6-figure salaries), while a standstill pay deal is being imposed on them.