More than 40,000 employees at Network Rail and 13 other UK train operators have gone on strike amid a row over pay, conditions, and job security. The industrial action – the largest rail strike in 30 years – has been organised by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union on behalf of its members and is taking place across the UK on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday but has effectively wiped out the network for the week.
In Wales the strikes have led to many train cancellations with only a handful of services still running. Although staff at Transport for Wales are not striking services across the country have been significantly affected by the industrial action as signalling and other infrastructure work is managed by Network Rail. Some Welsh stations will see a complete halt to all services with none running from them on any of the designated strike days. We're bringing our readers the latest updates on the rail strikes in Wales throughout the week. To read the latest updates go here.
Major train stations including Swansea, Bridgend, Carmarthen, Llanelli, Aberystwyth, Holyhead, and Llandudno will have no services at all while there will only be limited services from Cardiff, Newport, Pontypridd, and stations on the Valley lines to Merthyr, Aberdare, and Treherbert. Many train stations in England and Scotland have also been affected.
Read more: How much rail workers earn
Among the reasons why workers are striking is a dispute over pay. Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday UK Government transport secretary Grant Shapps said the median salary for the rail sector is £44,000 and noted that this is significantly higher than the median salary for a nurse, for example, which sits at £31,000. He also noted that the median salary for a train driver is £59,000.
The RMT disputed the £44,000 median salary figure and said the figure should ignore train drivers and instead should include cleaners who were previously left off the data. With this in mind the union says the median figure for workers in the rail sector is £33,000, as reported by BBC Reality Check.
Do people on strike get paid?
Under UK law employers do not have to pay employees who are on strike. The UK Government website explains: "You do not have to pay employees who are on strike. If workers take action short of a strike, and refuse to carry out part of their contractual work, this is called ‘partial performance’.
"If you refuse to accept partial performance, you must tell employees that: they should only attend work if they fulfil their contractual duties [and] if they do not fulfil the terms of their employment contract, you do not have to pay them. If you do accept partial performance, you must still pay employees for any work that they have done."
The government website also explains that pay will only be deducted for what they would have earned during their strike. For example, if an employee went on strike for eight hours they will not be paid whatever it is they would have earned during those eight hours if they had worked. People cannot have their pay deducted if they were not supposed to be working on the day of the strike however.
If employees return to work after the strike their continuous employment is not affected and they continue to be employed by the company. This means that the terms and conditions of their employment contracts still apply during and after the strike. However days when they were on strike do not count towards their total length of service and this may be important for working out things like statutory redundancy pay or pensions.
Your rights if you go on strike
The UK Government website explains that people who take industrial action "can't be legally forced to stay at, or go back to, work". Official guidance explains: "You have the right to take industrial action and you can’t be legally forced to stay at, or go back to, work (unless a ballot wasn’t organised properly).
"If you take industrial action, you’ll probably have broken (be 'in breach of') your employment contract and your employer: is unlikely to pay for the work you didn’t do when you took industrial action [and] can sue you for breaking your contract (this doesn’t happen often). Taking industrial action doesn’t usually mean that your employer will say you’ve broken your period of continuous employment with them. This begins when you start working for your employer and ends on the day your employer uses to calculate your length of service.
"However, if you take industrial action, your employer will reduce your length of service with them by the number of days you were on strike. This is important when working out your pension and things like statutory redundancy pay."
The guidance further explains that someone can not be dismissed for taking industrial action and going on strike if the strike has been called as a result of a properly-organised ballot, if the strike is about a trade dispute between workers and their employers, and if a detailed notice about the industrial action was given to the employer at least seven days before action begins.
However you can be dismissed for taking part in industrial action and going on strike if the union hasn't held a properly-organised ballot, if the union hasn't given the employer the correct notice for balloting members or taking action, if the union hasn't called its members to take actions, if the action is in support of workers taking action against a different employer or company, if the action is in support of only employing union members, or if it breaks any other parts of industrial action law.
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