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The potential industrial action is over two separate disputes involving maintenance and signalling and other operational staff.

Network Rail has 32,000 employees and runs, maintains and develops Britain’s tracks, signalling system, rail bridges, tunnels, level crossings, viaducts and 18 key stations. 

Ballot papers are being sent to more than 12,000 infrastructure workers after they rejected an "unacceptable" offer from the company on the harmonisation of terms and conditions by a landslide margin of more than 100 to one.

Some 5,000 signallers and other key operational staff are being balloted over pay and conditions after rejecting a "cynical" offer of an additional 0.1 per cent on the first year of a two-year deal. Both ballots conclude on 22 May.

The RMT said that the harmonisation dispute follows months of fruitless talks aimed at achieving a single set of terms and conditions for maintenance staff, many of whom transferred into Network Rail from the private sector.

The 5,000 signallers and operational staff are in dispute over pay. Network Rail's original offer, of 4.8 per cent this year and RPI plus 0.5 per cent in 2009, was rejected by RMT members by a margin of two to one.

The company had been informed that they year one element was acceptable but that the year 2 element was not.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said, "We told the company quite clearly that the second-year element of their pay offer to operational staff, of RPI plus 0.5 per cent, would not protect our members against costs that are rising way ahead of the official inflation rate."

The RMT said that Network Rail's offer of an extra 0.1 per cent in year one, bringing it to 4.9 per cent but conditional on the union not balloting for industrial action, would leave the second-year element unchanged.

The maintenance dispute follows the failure of months of talks to produce an offer on the harmonisation of terms and conditions for 12,000 infrastructure workers, many of whom have transferred into Network Rail from former contractors.

Some 6,641 RMT members voted to reject the proposals with just 56 voting to accept, and the union had already signalled that rejection would lead to a ballot for industrial action if acceptable proposals are not forthcoming at last-ditch talks which took place last month.

Crow said that the company had been using the talks to try to drive down his members' conditions.

"The company is now saying that our members can stay on their existing terms, but they are already moving to sneak inferior conditions in through the back door with a list of issues it now wants to 'discuss' separately. We know that means an attack on everyone's terms and conditions, not least because the company is looking to cut its maintenance budget by up to 12 per cent year on year," he added. 

Peter Bennett, director of human resources at Network Rail, said he understood that employees were concerned about their cost of living.

"That is why a fair and reasonable offer is on the table for our signallers (4.8 per cent increase this year and RPI + 0.5 per cent next year) one that people in any walk of life would recognise as a good deal and one that other unions have already accepted as fair. But the RMT want even more. Their demands are unreasonable," he added.

Bennett said that Network Rail was talking with the unions about standardising over 50 sets of terms and conditions that were inherited several years ago when maintenance was brought back in-house.

"This work continues and no agreement over the proposed new ones has been reached, so maintenance workers have nothing to strike against at this time, and we urge the RMT to come back to the table to continue to negotiate," he added.

"We would ask all our employees to consider carefully the issues on the table. On the one hand we have a very fair offer that compares very favourably with wage settlements across the country, and on the other there is nothing on the table on which to protest or strike about. We'd ask employees to use their vote to turn away from damaging industrial action," Bennett concluded.

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Related links

• RMT
• Network Rail