Strike off as deal struck

8:28pm Friday 16th May 2008

Comments (7)   Have your say »

Strike action by more than 400 staff at eight First Great Western train maintenance depots, including Oxford, has been called off.

Sunday's 24-hour strike was cancelled after FGW reached an agreement with transport union RMT over working hours and pay.

FGW has agreed to pay all engineers' overtime at a time and a quarter with effect from Sunday, June 8.

The company also agreed to implement 35-hour week rosters for engineers and a 25 per cent increase in earnings for cleaning staff. Staff at Bristol, Reading, Oxford, Penzance, Exeter, Plymouth, Swansea and Old Oak Common in London had voted by a three-to-one margin to strike.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The vast majority of FGW engineering and cleaning staff were still being paid the flat hourly rate for overtime, rather than the time-and-a-quarter enjoyed by other FGW staff, including train-crew and station staff.

Due to the steadfastness of members at FGW, these inequalities have been removed."

FGW spokesman Adrian Booth confirmed the strike had been called off following talks with RMT bosses. He said: "We clarified our commitments in relation to giving our engineering teams a 35-hour working week and overtime at time and a quarter to resolve the dispute. We had originally confirmed our commitment to this as far back as December."