The Rail Dispute

General Secretary of The Rail Union

Introduction
A trade union is an organised group of employees who join together to maintain, and improve, the
pay and working conditions of their employment. Historically Trade Unions are organised around
“trades” (e.g. dockworkers, textile factory workers, warehouse workers, railway workers, teachers,
etc). Trade Unions have an organisational structure, usually with a General Secretary at the top,
supported by a team of professionals and volunteers who may be either appointed or elected to
their positions by the workers who constitute its membership.

Trade Unions do important work in advocating on behalf of workers to employers. This includes
individual problems at work, but also collective issues such as health and safety at work, defending
and advancing workers’ employment conditions, including pay.

This negotiation simulation regards the pay and conditions of railway workers, negotiated between
the union’s General Secretary and the lead negotiator working on behalf of a consortium of railway
companies.

Your role
You are the General Secretary for a trade union representing railway workers, called The Rail
Union. Your membership works as ticket office agents, platform and station workers, train guards,
and other onboard staff – but not the train drivers themselves. In total, you represent 81,200 railway
workers, out of 189,000 workers (i.e. 42% of all railway workers are members of The Rail Union,
which is significantly higher than the UK average, where only of 23% of workers are members of a
union).

As the General Secretary of The Rail Union, you are ultimately responsible for implementing union
policy, managing its resources, and negotiating with rail company senior management on behalf of
your membership on issues affecting your members.

The negotiation simulation

Over the last few years, the terms, and conditions of your members – the railway workers – have
deteriorated. Covid-19 has had a hugely detrimental impact on rail passenger numbers – resulting in
a considerable drop in ticket sales revenues. As a result, the Government has increased its financial
support for rail companies to protect them against losses during the pandemic. However, the
Government is now seeking to withdraw this financial support, and push for ‘reforms’ in the rail
sector.

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

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 The Rail Dispute
General Secretary of The Rail Union

These ‘reforms’, in practice, mean the Government is pushing for rail companies to reduce the
number of employees. For those workers who remain, a new, less generous, contract will be
imposed on them.

Now it has reached a crisis point with the Government and railway companies seeking to further
erode the pay and conditions of the workers. You need to urgently negotiate with the rail companies
to settle the dispute. If you cannot settle the dispute, you can apply pressure on the employers by
escalating it to industrial action.

“Industrial action” can include “working to contract” (sometimes called “action short of strike”) –
which is refusing to work any overtime or carrying out tasks that are beyond those outlined in
workers’ employment contracts. It can also include “strike action”. Strike action involves a large
group of workers refusing to work. By refusing to work, workers seek to disrupt the business
operations of their employer – causing the employer financial and reputational harm. However, the
employer, in turn, does not pay the workers for the time they are striking – causing financial harm
and risk to the workers.

The union members have voted to authorise you to enter negotiations on their behalf regarding
their working conditions and pay with the rail company management representative. If these
negotiations do not reach a satisfactory outcome for workers, the members have also voted 8-2 in
favour of “action short of a strike” and “strike action”.

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

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 The Rail Dispute
General Secretary of The Rail Union

Issues to negotiate:

1. Number of redundancies

One of the most important issues for any trade union is protecting the jobs of its membership.

The Government would like to see a reduction in the number of railway workers, and rail companies
have proposed a 12% reduction in staff workforce, through a combination of compulsory
redundancies, voluntary redundancies, and staff attrition. This represents a loss of 22,000 workers
on the railway.

You will try to protect as many jobs as you can. In fact, given the challenges caused by Covid-19 (as
railway workers are “key workers”) and the fact that the Government has targets to reduce road
traffic and increase rail traffic, you would like to see an increase in the number of workers, not a
reduction! You would ideally like an increase of 10% in staffing levels, reducing the workload for
existing workers.

You will also argue that reducing workers means increased risk on the railways: less staff in stations
and trains, including the removal of guards and catering staff, cuts to cleaning, and the closure of
almost all ticket offices. This increases the safety risk for passengers and staff, and less accessible to
the public. It will lead to further deterioration in the railway industry.

Finally, you may also argue that the Scottish and Welsh Governments have both guaranteed there
will be no compulsory redundancies and have protected staffing levels. That if the UK Government
were to reduce staff would increase reputational damage to both the UK government and railway
companies to the public.

Table 1: Number of redundancies, with points.

Redundancies Points
12% reduction -50
10% reduction -25
8% reduction -10
5% reduction -5
0% No change +5
+5% increase in staff levels +10
+10% increase in staff levels +30

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

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 The Rail Dispute
General Secretary of The Rail Union

2. Nature of redundancies

If you accepted that there would be a reduction in the number of staff (above), then you will need to
negotiate how those redundancies will take place.

As briefly noted above, there are three ways an organisation can reduce the number of staff. These
are through:

1. Compulsory redundancy. This is when a business terminates a contract with an employee

due to business circumstances rather than due to an employees’ behavioural or
performance-related issues. Employees usually receive a ‘redundancy package’ which
includes a cash settlement.
2. Voluntary redundancy. This is when a business asks employees to voluntarily resign in
exchange for a financial package. Usually, this is most attractive to those who are near
retirement or were looking for other employment opportunities anyways.
3. Staff attrition. This is the loss of employees through a natural process of retirement and
resignation, and where the vacancy left is not filled by the employer.

You absolutely cannot accept ‘compulsory redundancies’. The union members will not accept this,
and so this is a ‘deal breaker’ for you. If the railway companies push this option on you, then you
must stop negotiating and call for a strike! A strike will disrupt the railway companies, costing them
many £millions in lost revenue every day.

If you accepted redundancies in issue (1) above, then your best-case scenario is to have a reduction
through staff attrition. However, union members will still not be happy with this because it means a
long-term reduction in staffing levels, increasing their workload over the longer term.

Table 2: Nature of redundancies, with points

Redundancies Points
Compulsory redundancies No deal, call for strike
Voluntary redundancies -20
Staff attrition -5

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

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 The Rail Dispute
General Secretary of The Rail Union

3. Pay

The third issue that requires negotiation is pay. Pay has effectively been frozen since 2010. And now
inflation is soaring, currently at 12%; meaning that workers’ real wage1 has dramatically fallen. The
union is asking for a pay rise to compensate for the rising cost-of-living for its members.

The rail companies have offered an pay increase of 3%. But as inflation is at 12%, this represents a
significant pay cut! The union wants a proper pay rise to compensate for inflation and the increased
cost of living.

The rail company may offer more than their initial 3% pay offer, but it may be linked to job cuts or
other changes in conditions (see other negotiation points). You may have to accept compromises
elsewhere to secure a pay rise for workers. Workers will not accept a pay cut, and will strike if this is
the railway managers’ final offer.

Table 3: Percentage pay increase for workers, with points

Pay settlement Points

20% pay increase +200
19% pay increase +150
18% pay increase +120
17% pay increase +100
16% pay increase +80
15% pay increase +60
14% pay increase +40
13% pay increase +30
12% pay increase +25
11% pay increase +20
10% pay increase +18
9% pay increase +15
8% pay increase +12
7% pay increase +8
6% pay increase +5
5% pay increase +3
4% pay increase +1
3% pay increase 0 (current offer)
2% pay increase No deal, call for strike
0% No change No deal, call for strike
-2% pay cut No deal, call for strike

1
Real wage refers to a person’s wages adjusted for inflation. Imagine you are paid £10,000 in 2022. In 2023
there was 10% inflation, and your salary remained the same. This means that while your income remained at
£10,000 in 2023, the value of that your wage has reduced by 10% because the costs of goods and services have
increased, so you can buy fewer things with that £10,000 in 2023 than you could in 2022.

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

Do not share this case with anyone outside of your class: preserve its integrity for future students.
 The Rail Dispute
General Secretary of The Rail Union

4. Conditions

The rail companies are looking to change other aspects of railway workers’ working conditions:

Sunday Rest Day

At the moment, Sunday is a ‘rest day’ meaning that working on a Sunday is voluntary and paid at
overtime rates, which is x1.5 the hourly rate. The rail companies want to change this so that there
are no ‘rest days’, and no overtime paid on Sunday ‘rest days’. Many of our membership use the
overtime on Sundays to help support their income. It may be possible to accept losing the ‘voluntary
working’ status on Sunday, and the overtime, so long as the rail companies offer a higher wage
increase. Or conversely, members may be willing is accept a lower pay increase, but are
compensated by a more generous overtime rate on Sundays.

Reduced holiday time

At the moment, each full-time employee is entitled to 30 days of paid holiday a year, including public
holidays. The rail companies want to change this so that this is reduced to 25 days, a reduction of 5
days. As before, it may be possible to accept lower wage increases in exchange for a higher number
of paid holiday days per year.

On Call premium.
Some staff are ‘on call’ during the night, meaning that they can be called into work with 1 hours’
notice to address urgent business or emergencies. This is usually done by station staff and train
yards staff. At the moment, workers who are ‘on call’ are entitled to a £50 ‘on-call’ fee, and a further
£100 if they are called out to the station or the train yards during the night. The rail companies are
trying to change this to a flat fee of between £50-£79, regardless if the workers are called out during
the night, or not.

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

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 The Rail Dispute
General Secretary of The Rail Union

Terms Points
Keep Sunday rest day voluntary +5
Voluntary Sunday Rest day working is removed -10

Sunday overtime is paid at x2.5 hourly rate +10

Sunday overtime is paid at x2.0 hourly rate +5
Sunday overtime is paid at x1.5 hourly rate (current rate) +1
Sunday overtime is paid at x1.0 hourly rate (standard rate) -10

Paid holiday entitlement increased to 40 days +10

Paid holiday entitlement increased to 35 days +5
Paid holiday entitlement remains at 30 days 0
Paid holiday entitlement decreased to 25 days -5
Paid holiday entitlement decreased to 20 days -10
Paid holiday entitlement decreased to 15 days -15

On call premium flat rate >£150 +10

On call premium flat rate between £120 and £149 +8
On call premium flat rate between £100 and £119 +1
On call premium flat rate between £80 and £99 -1
On call premium flat rate between £60 and £79 -5
On call premium flat rate between <£60 -10

Negotiations BUSI1632, led by Dr Scott Tindal

Do not share this case with anyone outside of your class: preserve its integrity for future students.