The Ticket Collector

FGW Train Maintenance and Cleaning staff to strike

First Great Western staff based at Bristol, Reading, Oxford, Penzance, Exeter, Plymouth, Swansea, and Old Oak Common in London will not book on for shifts that begin after 00:01 on May 18 for 24 hours.

This is due to the company’s refusal to pay an enhanced rate of pay for overtime and or to concede a 35-hour week at the Reading and Exeter depots.

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

“Most FGW staff already work a 35-hour week, but we have some engineering grades at Reading still on 42 hours - effectively working an extra day a week for nothing.

“For months we have tried to get the company to recognise that engineering grades have the right to the same treatment as other grades, but the company has dug in its heels and that is an absolute disgrace.

“The company has now tried to confuse matters by pretending that what is a straightforward case of equal treatment can only now be resolved in wider harmonisation talks, and that is simply not good enough.

“The company’s refusal to budge leaves us with no alternative but to strike, and the RMT executive has today agreed that the members involved will strike for 24 hours on May 18,” Bob Crow said.