RAIL strikes during COP26 in Glasgow have been called off, with a dispute over pay now settled, the RMT has confirmed.
The union confirmed the planned industrial action would be “withdrawn immediately” following talks with transport bosses and an agreement on a pay rise.
The Scottish Government and ScotRail had imposed a deadline of 5pm on Wednesday for a resolution to the dispute over pay and conditions.
In a letter sent to union members after Wednesday evening’s talks, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “I can advise you that negotiations have been held and that your union made a counter offer to ScotRail. By accepting the offer, all industrial action is now cancelled and I instruct you all to work normally on the days you had previously been instructed to take action on.”
The trade union had set out its final negotiating position ahead of the deadline , calling for a 2.5% pay rise backdated to April and a “COP26 payment” for all staff.
World leaders and thousands of delegates are set to arrive in Glasgow for the United Nations climate summit, but the 13-day event has been threatened with disruption caused by rail strikes which had been due to start on Monday.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said the letter from RMT general secretary Mike Lynch had been received before the deadline but no decision had been reached.
Setting out the demands to avoid RMT members striking for the duration of the climate summit, Lynch also asked for three hours booking-on allowance and a new pay and conditions review by April 1, 2022.
Lynch said: “We are making this offer in good faith with the sole intention of breaking the current deadlock and allowing us to make progress as the clock ticks down to COP26.
Other unions had already accepted the deal on the table but Transport Minister Graeme Dey warned on Tuesday he was “not optimistic” that a resolution would be reached with the RMT before the deadline.
Speaking at Holyrood, Dey accused the RMT of changing its counter-proposals, and said: “Multiple times over recent weeks, we have been led directly and publicly to believe that there was a possible resolution of this dispute.
“This Government and ScotRail reached out on all occasions, only to find the goalposts moved. It has been very difficult to establish trust in this process.”
In response, Lynch said: “This inflammatory language helps no-one. We are not going to indulge in digging deeper trenches when there is ample time to resolve these disputes if we get talks back on.”
David Simpson, ScotRail operations director, said the 5pm deadline had been set to give ScotRail time to plan for services during the summit, which starts on Sunday and runs until November 12.
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