As part of its efforts to improve service, the intercity train operator Avanti struck an overtime agreement with drivers. This could bring their average annual salary to nearly £100,000.
The operator of the services on west coast mainline between London, Manchester and Glasgow agreed to pay drivers a flat fee of £600 for working an additional shift over their four-day standard week. Drivers used to receive £125 plus an hourly rate for working the extra day.
Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, accepted Avanti’s offer immediately and broke the deadlock of a long-running overtime dispute.
For a four-day work week, drivers receive a salary of £67,000 per year. The Department for Transport has approved the new £600 per day stipend, which will be funded by tax payers.
TransPennine Express – the east-west route nationalised by the government last year due to poor performance – is believed to have also agreed an overtime agreement with its drivers, in what’s known as a’rest day working’ agreement.
Avanti is still dealing with cancellations and disruptions. Unofficial statistics show that Avanti cancelled 3,996 trains and partially cancelled 2,327 more in the 11 months leading up to March 2024. Although the cancellation rate has decreased from the previous year’s, it is still three times higher than when Virgin Trains operated the main west coast line.
Whitehall sources confirmed that ministers had signed the new overtime agreement to reset the industrial relations between avanti union and Aslef.
Aslef’s general secretary Mick Whelan accepted Avanti’s offer to pay £600 per extra shift, on top of the standard four-day work week.
Avanti, along with other train operators, have tried to alter working conditions that haven’t been changed in decades. Huw Merriman, rail minister of the United Kingdom, told the Commons that a 1997 agreement on working patterns with unions was intended to be terminated in 2002 but it is still in place. He said that until we make progress with restrictive contracts, it will be impossible to change anything. “A government can’t break the contract – it’s between the operator and union.”
There are technical reasons for operators not working. It comes down to being able to manage your workforce. That’s why reforms are needed.
Avanti stated: “We are happy to reach an agreement on rest day work… it will help ensure that our services are more reliable while we continue training drivers on our brand new trains.”