Technology Secretary Peter Kyle defended the deal signed off by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh (Image: Getty)
Ministers denied the government is a “soft touch” after signing off a generous bonus for train guards working a five day week.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh agreed the ￡300 payment for staff working on CrossCountry services ahead of planned weekend strike action.
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The operator clashed with union RMT by using managers to fill in for employees at weekends, triggering a vote in favour of industrial action.
Staff will be given a ￡300 bonus and their pay at the normal rate until the middle of next month backdated to August, before returning to the usual time and a half overtime payments.
It comes on top of the government’s nationwide deal that gives guards and other rail workers a 9.5% pay rise over two years.
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Technology Secretary Peter Kyle insisted the deal did not mean the government will cave in to union demands.
“This Labour Government is a soft touch to no-one,” Peter Kyle told LBC.
He added: “I am broadly in favour of investing in our workforce, investing in our country and making sure we can get out of this doom spiral that the last Tory government left us with – high tax, low growth, an economy that is going nowhere.”
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Separately, Ms Haigh put a major deal at risk with P&O’s Dubai-based parent company DP World in the run-up to a UK business summit.
Downing Street insisted Sir Keir Starmer still has “full confidence” in the Transport Secretary despite having disowned her claims the firm was a “cowboy operator”.
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Asked if the Transport Secretary had the Prime Minister’s full confidence, Sir Keir’s official spokesman said: “Yes, absolutely. The Transport Secretary in the run-up to the summit delivered significant investment in electric buses.
“She’s put an end to industrial disruption seen for the past two-and-a-half years that has cost the economy and commuters dearly, and she’s been driving forward reform and bringing rail services back into public ownership.”