The
HR director at troubled train operator South West Trains told
personneltoday.com she is delighted strike action has been cancelled by the RMT
trade union.
Recent
strike action by station support staff had crippled the company’s operations
out of Waterloo, London.
More
strikes over pay were promised, but have now been called off to allow the
company to negotiate with all three of its staff’s trade unions in October.
Beverley
Shears, HR director at SWT, said she is now looking to the future: "I am
pleased that it is over we can now sit down together and determine a
constructive way forward for the future of all of us and repair the damage the
strikes have called."
During
earlier strikes mangers, including those from the HR team, were trained up and
replaced staff as station guards and support staff to minimise disruptions.
Shears
insisted that management operational training would continue in case similar
strike action were to occur again:
"There
has been clear positives that have come out of the strike with the training of
managers during the strikes in operational skills which they may not have had
otherwise. We shall continue to retain these skills and this will support us in
building relationships with our staff," she said.
The strikers demanded pay increase parity
with train drivers. During the industrial action SWT imposed a 7.6 per cent
18-month pay increase, although it was phased in differently to the train
drivers’ pay increase.
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