Railway workers voting on strikes over Christmas pay

Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union will be voting on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action. The result of the vote is due on December 20.

RMT leader Bob Crow said the union was seeking double pay for working on December 27 and 28, adding: "That is a very modest and reasonable recognition of Christmas holiday working, however the company has turned it down flat despite the fact that they are sitting on bundles of cash accumulated off the back of the hard graft of our members.

"As it stands, staff rostered to work those days will not receive any enhanced payments. This situation is wholly unacceptable. Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th December are public holidays across the entire UK and the vast majority of employers recognise this.

"However Northern Rail is refusing to acknowledge this fact. It is ludicrous to think that the company believes that it can pick and choose which bank holidays it can honour."

Northern Rail human resources director Adrian Thompson said: "We have explained to the RMT that we will honour our agreed terms and conditions but will not make any payments over and above those long-standing agreements.

"We do not think it is reasonable for the RMT to demand a new additional payment for these Bank Holidays. This is because the previous additional payments for Bank Holidays were traded for other benefits when the restructuring agreements were implemented."

Northern has 4,800 employees across the north of England.