SORT IT OUT, SUNAK
23% pay rise for Abellio rail boss
THE boss of one of Britain’s biggest train operators has secured an eye-watering 23% pay rise while 40,000 rail workers strike for fair pay.
Abellio paid MD Dominic Booth an inflation-busting £739,653 in 2021, which represented a £153,000 hike on the £586,000 salary paid to the 59-year-old in 2020.
The rise comes as thousands of rail workers struggled to make ends meet after more than a decade of stagnant wages.
RMT members were this month offered a “best and final” below-inflation rise of 9%. The two-year offer, with 5% backdated to 2022 and 4% this year, would take the average rail worker’s pay from £31,000 to £33,790.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “While executives make millions, our members are asked to accept substandard pay offers and a ripping-up of hard fought terms and conditions during a cost-of-living crisis.”
Dutch firm Abellio operates services in Greater Anglia, the Midlands and Merseyside.
EXCLUSIVE
THE new leader of the TUC has demanded a Downing Street summit with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to end the wave of strikes sweeping Britain.
BY NIGEL NELSON Political Editor
We could go to No10 tomorrow... the ball is in his court TUC’S PAUL NOWAK WANTS TALKS WITH PM
General secretary Paul Nowak, who replaced Frances O’Grady last month, said: “The PM must get me and union leaders into the room to sort this out. We’ll go to No10 tomorrow. The ball is in his court.”
Mr Nowak told the Sunday Mirror that ministers wanted to settle pay disputes, but were being stopped by the PM and his Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
And he urged the pair to follow the example of private sector employers who have reached pay agreements with their workforces.
On Wednesday, nearly 500,000 teachers, civil servants, college staff and train drivers plan to walk out.
But it will leave schools, government departments, universities and transport paralysed for the day as staff protest proposed anti-strike laws and demos are held across the UK.
A petition signed by 220,000 people will also be delivered to Downing Street. Mr Nowak said: “If this was the private sector, they would be asking what has gone wrong, how can we fix it and get people back to work.
“This is action none of us wants, but action we’ve been forced into.
“These are the people who hold communities together. They can’t afford another year of real-terms pay cuts.”
Mr Nowak said that if the PM agreed to a meeting, it could stop further action from going ahead. He said: “We’re all in this together. When physios and paramedics don’t have money in their pockets, they can’t spend it in shops, restaurants and bars. The Treasury needs to unlock this.
“One in three teachers leave the profession within 10 years of qualifying and there are 300,000 vacancies in the NHS and social care.
“Government have forgotten the art of negotiation and the art of compromise – Rishi Sunak saw the positive power of working with unions for creative solutions during the pandemic but seems to have forgotten the lessons of that.”
Mr Sunak wants to neuter strikes by insisting on minimum service levels. This
would mean workers are sacked if they fail to cross picket lines for a strikebreaking shift.
But Mr Nowak says the PM is wrong to cite similar laws in other countries as justification.
He said: “In Italy, there is a constitutional right to strike. In France, all it takes is a letter to employers for a strike in 48 hours. If this makes it to the statute book, we’ll challenge it in the courts.
And if one worker loses their job over this, it will prolong disputes and worsen industrial relations.
“It’s bad law. It creates uncertainty for workers and employers.”
The TUC boss is happy with the support from Labour, which has vowed to repeal any anti-strike laws if Keir Starmer becomes PM. And he insisted that any industrial action is about pay and not politically motivated, as the Tories have claimed.
TUC figures show
wages will not get back to their real-world 2008 value until 2027.
Mr Nowak, from Merseyside, joined a union at 17, became the youngest vice president of the Wirral Trades Union Council at 19 and was sacked as a BT agency worker for union activity at 22.
The 50-year-old has been with the TUC for 22 years and represents 6.4 million union members. He aims to create a bigger, stronger, more diverse union – but Wednesday will be his first big test.
Strikers will include 300,000 National Education Union teachers, 100,000 Public and Commercial Services Union civil servants, 70,000 University and College Union staff and 10,000 ASLEF and RMT members.
It comes against the backdrop of the row over Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi’s taxes.
Mr Nowak said: “Our members will be amazed someone has got £4.8million laying around they can pay in back taxes and penalties to HMRC.
“My brother and my son work together at a small building firm. If they hadn’t paid their taxes, HMRC would be down on them like a ton of bricks.”