Network Rail maintenance workers to strike over Easter weekend

Rail maintenance engineers are to strike over the Easter bank holiday in a dispute over pay.

More than 80 members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association employed by Network Rail will walk out next Thursday until midnight on Easter Monday.

The union warned that the action could disrupt services to Northern, Transpennine, Virgin and Cross Country trains, saying it will hit Network Rail's programme of engineering work scheduled to take place over the holiday period.

TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said: "TSSA has been trying for years to persuade Network Rail to honour agreements relating to annual pay increases which are linked to the knowledge and skills of these professional staff, many of whom are graduates.

"Network Rail has refused to budge, and the considerable patience of our members has finally been exhausted.

"They don't want to walk off the job, they just want to be paid what they are contractually entitled to.

"Bizarrely, Network Rail has already paid some of these staff what they were owed, with payments in some cases being in excess of £10,000, but they suddenly put the shutters up."