ScotRail strike action update as union Aslef confirms ballot decision

The union is the latest to ballot its members of potential strike action

More rail workers could vote for strike action after a leading union sanctioned a ballot for industrial action amid a pay dispute, in a further blow for passengers.

Union Aslef said ScotRail’s “failure to table an acceptable pay offer” had forced it to ballot its members over a potential strike, or action short of a strike, which could include scenarios such as working to rule.

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Aslef Scotland, which represents almost all of the 1,300 drivers at ScotRail, said the ballot would close on August 29.

The union said: “Our national executive committee have today sanctioned a ballot for industrial action and action short of strike on ScotRail following their failure to table an acceptable pay offer.”

Aslef’s Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: “This ballot has come about because of ScotRail and the Scottish Government's failure to come up with a serious and credible offer to our members.

“It is a mess of their own making. We urge them to think again, treat our members with the fairness and respect they deserve, and make an offer to them that is credible and serious.”

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This comes just days after the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said it would hold votes for staff at ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper from next week that could lead to industrial action by mid-August - the peak of Edinburgh’s festivals season.

Meanwhile, ScotRail, which is owned by the Scottish Government, is already operating a temporary timetable that is to run indefinitely, in an effort to provide certainty to travellers after some drivers stopped volunteering for overtime on which the company depends, leading to large-scale cancellations at short-notice.

The company said on Monday it would put on extra trains for the Open golf championship in Troon, despite the temporary timetable that has seen a quarter of its trains axed.

A record 250,000 golf fans are expected to attend The Open, which finishes on Sunday. 

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Aslef and ScotRail’s other unions on Friday last week rejected a multi-stage 9.3 per cent increase from ScotRail over three years.

The offer comprised a 2 per cent increase in April this year, next year and 2026, and a further 1 per cent in January 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Maternity pay would also be increased to 13 weeks’ average pay, 13 weeks of full pay and 13 weeks on half pay. Paternity pay would go up to one week average pay and three weeks’ full pay. RMT said the same offer had been made to its Caledonian Sleeper staff.

The union said the two companies had both tabled “well-below inflation derisory offers that did not fully reward members for their hard work and dedication”.

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The strike ballot threat comes two years after ScotRail passengers suffered significant and prolonged disruption in a previous pay dispute when many drivers took unofficial action by no longer volunteering for overtime, on which ScotRail still depends to run some of its services.

It led to ScotRail reducing its timetable by a third - cancelling 700 trains a day for some four months - in an attempt to provide certainty to passengers.

The operator, which was nationalised in 2022, said it would take until 2027 to recruit enough drivers to no longer need such overtime cover, in which staff volunteer for “rest day working”.

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