Louise Haigh has signed off on a deal which means train guards will receive a £300 bonus for working a six-day week.
The Transport Secretary struck an agreement in September to prevent strikes by Cross Country, which is based in the West Midlands and runs intercity services across the country.
It comes after Ms Haigh’s description of P&O Ferries as a “rogue operator” last week almost led its parent company DP World to withdraw £1 billion of investment in Britain.
Train guards will receive £300 a day as a bonus if they agree to work for a sixth day each week as part of the overtime deal, which was first reported by The Sunday Times.
Members of the RMT union had voted to strike after CrossCountry used managers to fill in for staff at weekends. To stave off the walkouts, guards working Saturday shifts between now and mid-November will receive the £300 payment on top of their normal wage.
The deal was criticised by the Conservatives on Sunday. Helen Whately, the shadow transport secretary, said: “Rail unions can’t get enough of this Government. They now know that every time they go on strike Labour will cave.”
CrossCountry was the second-worst ranked train operator for both cancellations and punctuality in the three months through to March.
It also had a worse cancellations record than Avanti West Coast, the worst performer among Britain’s 20 train operating companies, in the full year, according to data from the Office of Rail and Road.
Ministers signed off a 15 per cent pay rise for train drivers last month, meaning they now earn just under £70,000 on average.
Ms Haigh met Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef union, which represents train drivers, five days after Labour took office. The deal was announced four weeks later.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “While this is a local matter for CrossCountry, it’s crucial that passengers receive a more reliable service, on every day of the week – something our overhaul of the railways will help deliver.”
Ms Haigh’s long-term future is thought to be in doubt after she angered Downing Street by blindsiding it over the deal.
The Transport Secretary was also at the centre of a row over her P&O Ferries comments last week. She had encouraged people to boycott the company, prompting Number 10 to put in a late-night phone call to the firm to distance itself from her remarks.
She had been referring to the firm choosing to sack 800 staff in 2022, most of whom had been based in Dover. It had planned to replace them with cheaper workers from overseas.
Allies of Ms Haigh were unhappy with the way the Government responded because her description of P&O as a “rogue operator” exactly mirrored language that was used in an official press release issued earlier that day.
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