LONDON (Reuters) -British trade union RMT on Tuesday said it had suspended all strike action on Network Rail following a new offer from the employer, after a long-running pay dispute led to months of disruptive transport strikes.
“The RMT National Executive Committee has taken the decision to suspend all industrial action on Network Rail following receipt of a new offer from the employer,” the union said in a statement.
Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) were due to walk out on March 16.
“We are relieved for our people, passengers and freight customers that industrial action in Network Rail has now been suspended. We look forward to further information on plans for a referendum,” Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said in a statement.
The latest announcement from Britain’s largest railway workers’ union comes after months of strike action by the union’s members over pay, jobs and conditions.
Separately, planned strike action by the union’s members working for the 14 train operating companies are expected to go ahead on March 16, 18, 30 and April 1.
Britain has been gripped by a wave of industrial action by hundreds of thousands of workers, including health workers, teachers and public sector workers, as wages fail to keep pace with soaring inflation and a deepening cost-of-living crisis.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; Editing by Chris Reese/Deepa Babington/Ken Ferris)
