Network Rail bosses have agreed to defer part of their own bonuses until investigators had determined the cause of the Cumbria rail crash in February.
Rail Maritime & Transport (RMT) union called for strike action following Network Rail’s decision to suspend the bonuses of 119 staff who had worked in the area near Grayrigg, where the accident on the West Coast Main Line at Lambrigg took place.
As a result, chief executive John Armitt, along with three other executive directors, agreed to suspend their own bonuses totalling £286,000 and representing a 63% reduction from last year.
Network Rail said in a statement: “The company’s executive directors have decided to defer their own annual bonus entitlement for this year. No decision will be taken on executive directors’ bonuses until the causes of the derailment are fully understood.”
However, RMT said it would press on with a strike ballot on the issue to be concluded on 25 June.
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Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said: “It seems that our strike threat has shamed Network Rail bosses into suspending part of their own massive bonus payments. But the fact remains that 119 of our members working in the Grayrigg area have been effectively scapegoated by the corporate decision-makers of Network Rail, and that is unacceptable,” he said.
