Rail engineers at the Tyne and Wear Metro have called off a strike after an eleventh hour pay deal was agreed.
More than 50 staff employed at the Metro’s Gosforth depot by Stadler were due to stage a two-week walkout that it was feared would disrupt train services. The strike was set to start on Monday, November 14, but was cancelled after the Swiss manufacturing giant came back with an improved pay offer.
Members of the Unite union had rejected an initial four per cent pay increase, which had been branded a substantial real terms pay cut given the high rate of inflation, but it has now been confirmed that they have voted to accept a new deal. Unite said the latest pay talks produced a “much improved offer for increases to salary and allowances, which will be backdated to January, a £1,000 one-off payment and boosts to overtime rates and health benefits”.
