By Actuality Test team
BBC Info
Image offer, Getty Shots
Tens of thousands of rail workers are taking share within the biggest strike for decades. The commercial dart by members of the RMT union is over pay and redundancies.
The RMT says it wants a pay upward thrust to compare the value of residing and has known as a suggestion of 2% more – with the probability of some other 1% – “unacceptable”.
There were a entire bunch claims about how worthy rail workers are paid. Let’s commence with the most realistic figure quoted.
How worthy are educate drivers paid?
In a debate about the strikes in Parliament on 15 June, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps replied to a suggestion from Jeremy Corbyn that pay changed into insufficient by asserting: “The median salary for a educate driver is £59,000, when compared with £31,000 for a nurse and £21,000 for a care employee.”
To work out the median salary, whilst you happen to construct all educate drivers in a row in instruct of their pay, the actual person within the course of the row could perhaps perhaps be incomes the median.
Mr Shapps is basically like minded on these figures, which come from the Office for Nationwide Statistics (ONS).
For 2021, the median salary for educate and tram drivers changed into £59,189 and for nurses it changed into £31,093.
His figure for care workers is a miniature high. The median for care workers and residential carers changed into £16,502 and for senior care workers it changed into £20,105.
The disaster with the utilization of the figure for educate drivers in a debate about the RMT strikes is that the drivers are represented by their very like union, Aslef, which says that 96% of educate drivers in England, Scotland and Wales are its members, and different the last 4% are now not union members at all.
Aslef could perhaps perhaps now not be taking share within the national strike, though they’ve dart of their very like taking space at the same time, with drivers at Better Anglia inserting on 23 June. A strike on Hull Trains on 26 June has been cancelled. Aslef are moreover balloting for dart on several other traces.
Mr Shapps went on to instruct: “The median salary for the rail sector is £44,000, which is significantly above the median salary within the country.”
We requested the Division for Transport (DfT) the device in which it bought to this figure and it before the entirety acknowledged it had taken the median figures from the ONS for four classes of workers, added them up and divided by four:
Rail budge assistants – £33,310 – entails trace collectors, guards and recordsdata team Rail construction and maintenance operatives – £34,998 – they lay and repair tracksRail transport operatives – £48,750 – entails signallers and drivers’ assistantsTrain and tram drivers – £59,189This would now not like produced a median figure and the DfT therefore bought in contact to instruct they’d if truth be told bought the figure from the ONS, which had produced a valid median figure (£43,747) across everyone in those four classes along with a fifth – workers who like and repair engines and carriages. Their median salary is £46,753.
It has moreover produced a median figure with the exception of educate drivers – who’re now not focused on the RMT strike – of £36,800.
Image offer, Getty Shots
Mr Shapps is appropriate that the figure is above the median pay for all staff within the UK, which changed into £25,971 final 300 and sixty five days.
The RMT figure of £33,000
The RMT union says the figures venerable by the authorities are too high because they comprise educate drivers who’re practically about all represented by a distinct union and now not folks like cleaners who’re now not classified within the ONS figures as rail workers.
The RMT says 10,000 of its members are cleaners.
It says that whilst you happen to have interaction the £44,000 figure, exclude the drivers and comprise cleansing team you obtain a median figure of £33,000, which better reflects the pay of the folk occurring strike.
We requested the RMT for its trusty workings, nonetheless it seems to be seemingly that whilst you happen so that you simply can add heaps of low-paid team much like cleaners to the calculation then potentialities are you’ll perhaps perhaps perhaps obtain it all the procedure down to about £33,000.
Has pay long previous up by 40%?
Speaking about pay for rail workers, Mr Shapps acknowledged there had been a “practically 40% elevate in salaries over the final 10 years”.
The ONS calculated a median figure for the same five classes of rail workers in 2011, which came out at £35,329.
Which methodology there changed into a upward thrust of 24% over the final 10 years, now not 40%. It is same to the 23% elevate for all staff over the same interval.
Take into accout that for the folk if truth be told focused on this week’s strike the rise shall be lower, because this figure entails a 39% elevate in pay for the educate drivers, who’re on the total now not represented by the RMT.
We now like got requested DfT the device in which it worked out the practically 40% elevate nonetheless like now not but heard relieve.
Shapps order about Keir Starmer
On the BBC’s Sunday Morning political programme, Mr Shapps moreover claimed that Labour chief Keir Starmer “changed into within the relieve of the scenes encouraging the unions to scamper on strike”.
He made a same order in a tweet, which linked to a Mail on Sunday article, in step with leaked minutes from Labour’s Nationwide Govt Committee.
In step with the article, the leaked minutes acknowledged: “On imaginable dart on the railways he [Keir] acknowledged it changed into detestable for the authorities to restrict the trusty to strike.”
Opposing authorities measures to restrict the trusty to strike is now not connected to encouraging unions to strike.
A Labour spokesperson replied: “Keir has been very particular that these strikes could perhaps perhaps nonetheless now not scamper forward.”