Rail pay dispute will spread across Scotland – union

A pay dispute involving train drivers will spread across Scotland’s public sector, a trade union chief has warned.

Kevin Lindsay, Scotland organiser for Aslef, said train drivers were likely to launch industrial action due to a “derisory” pay offer from ScotRail.

The publicly-owned rail firm has slashed 600 services and introduced an emergency timetable after four unions rejected a deal last week.

ScotRail has apologised to customers and said it is “fully committed” to further talks with unions.

Mr Lindsay told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland that Aslef train drivers had rejected an offer of a 2% pay rise backdated to 1 April, with a further 1% increase from 1 January.

Drivers have subsequently decided not to work on their days off, with Mr Lindsay claiming ScotRail relied on the “goodwill” of its staff to run the service at full capacity.

He said that following a consultation with the union’s national executive, workers were likely to be balloted on industrial action.

“It’s not just going to be Aslef that are going to be balloting – RMT, Unite, TSSA union going to ballot as well,” Mr Lindsay said.

“This is going to spread right across the whole of the public sector in Scotland until the Scottish government get real.”