OFFICIAL

Mick Lynch The Quadrant: MK

Elder Gate
General Secretary
Milton Keynes
Unity House MK9 1EN
39 Charlton Street
Ref: IR/LB/050/22
London
NW1 1DJ
cc. Eddie Dempsey

31 January 2023

Dear Mick

Newly Revised Pay Offer to employees covered by the National Maintenance Council
and the National Operations Council, including Bands 5-8

Extensive pay and reform discussions have taken place within both our National Operations
Council and our National Maintenance Council culminating in an offer tabled in December
2022. Following further discussions, we set out a fresh set of proposals to be put to our
employees represented by the bargaining groups of the National Operations Council and
National Maintenance Council. We have listened, reflected, and believe this supports the
RMT’s ambition for improvements

Reduction to the working week

✓ Reducing the working week for colleagues currently on an Amey contract

volunteering to adopt the existing GTRM/Carillion/IMC 25 contract, we propose a
transition from the current 40-hour contract to a 35-hour week contract on an
improved basis. We will see an hour reduction for each year whilst maintaining their
salary on a red-circled basis. Overtime premium on GTRM/Carillion/IMC 25 would
kick in after each phase of reduction in the working week.

Network Rail Infrastructure Limited Registered Office: Network Rail, One Eversholt Street, London, NW1 2DN Registered in England and Wales No. 2904587 www.networkrail.co.uk
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This creates a pathway for Amey contract colleagues to reduce the working week.
This also has the additional benefit of an increase in their pensionable pay, with a
restructuring premium applied if they are a member of the Railway Pension Scheme.
This transition will start at the commencement of 2024.
✓ Standardising working week to 35 hours progressively: Commitment to a joint
review of any other contract above a 35-hour week to understand the impact and
propose a way forward.

Work life balance/Well-being

✓ Improved Carers leave - Improve the current unpaid leave arrangements and
provide the option to transfer up to 5 days paid volunteering leave to a maximum
5 days paid carers leave for registered carers.

Recognition of company service

✓ Long Service Award: Introduce an improved, standardised long service award

framework where vouchers are issued, and a meal funded for colleagues. This will
replace the existing Network Rail standard of £250 for 25 years and all other awards.
The current 25-year award will therefore be removed as of 31 December 2023,
employees who have been impacted by this change will receive the award closest to
their current anniversary.

Qualifying yr. Voucher Meal

10 £150 £120
20 £250 £120
30 £350 £120
40 £450 £120

✓ Privileged Staff Travel: Discretionary privileged leisure travel which provides a

75% discount on all leisure travel and includes family members.
✓ Commitment to continue to explore further enhancements to privileged staff travel
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Job Security

✓ No compulsory redundancies - for all general grades and bands 5-8 until 31
January 2025
✓ Voluntary redundancy scheme - opened to Section Planners and Section Admin
before 31 March 2023

Earning potential / pay and enhanced benefits

✓ Premium London allowances – GTRM/Carillion/IMC 25 contract increase to the

most favourable London and South-East allowances.
✓ Inner London £3300
✓ Outer London £1950
✓ South- East £975
✓ Managed Stations CSAs, SCAs SSSs and Tour Guides - we confirm that on
settlement of this dispute the back payment for managed stations employees as
previously agreed will be paid.
✓ £1,225 per person in full and final settlement of the backpay for those
employees who worked rostered Sundays in their base roster between the 01
January 2020 and the 01 July 2020.
✓ To be paid at the earliest pay date possible following acceptance of the offer
✓ Transfer window opens earlier - Carillion/GTRM IMC25 contract transfer window
will open as an expression of interest (employees who have accepted an offer to
leave under VR are not eligible). Dates will be agreed in local consultation.

o Employees will remain on their existing contract and will be given data to
compare earnings between the two contracts once the new working
arrangements have gone live in their area.
o We commit to work with unions representatives to make information
available to people while they decide, and this may include 1-1s, roadshows,
helplines for both HRSS and pensions
o Regardless of date of transfer – any arrears on difference of actual earnings
will be backdated to 01 October 2023
✓ Season ticket subsidy - cap of £2,750 will be removed and a discount of 75%
uncapped will be applied for the total cost of the season ticket
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✓ Pay 2022 - A minimum uplift of a consolidated £1,750 or a 5% increase (whichever

is greater) up to a maximum uplift of £3,500 to the annual base rates of pay
effective from 01 January 2022.
✓ Back pay - for annual base pay, shift, and overtime, will be paid on the first possible
pay day following acceptance of this offer
✓ Pay 2023 - 4% increase to the annual base rates of pay effective from 01 January
2023
o With the 2022 underpin + 2023 uplift = increase from 9.2% - 14.4% on base
pay
✓ GTRM / CARILLION / IMC25 Opt – in - for 4,800 (45%) earnings would increase
on average 6%if they transferred to the standard contract - this is separate from
and in addition to the general pay award uplift
✓ Colleagues on Role Clarity contracts - the usual practice of using performance
ratings to distribute pay increases will not be applied for 2022 or 2023.
o We will revise the top and bottom of the salary bands by the percentage
increases offered.
o For colleagues who have reached the maximum of the revised salary band,
any difference will be made as a one-off, non-consolidated payment

✓ Colleagues paid £24,000 or below (excluding Apprentices) - £250 uplift to

employees who currently earn £24,000 pa or less in base pay for FY21 financial year,
this will be backdated to 01 January 2021
o Any employee that earns above £24,000 but earns below £24,250 will be
levelled up to £24,250. For example, an employee on £24,150 will have their
salary increased to £24,250

✓ Apprentice Pay - An uplift to £19,838 per annum or the percentage base pay uplift
(whichever is greater) for Year 1 for company-wide apprentices, back dated to 01
April 2022
o £22,814 per annum for Year 2 & 3 Maintenance Apprentices only, back
dated to 01 April 2022
o Ex- Apprentices who completed the end point assessment but have not yet been
appointed to a role and are awaiting a contract will have the choice of the
relevant IMC or the GTRM/Carillion/IMC 25 contract on first appointment.
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Modernising Maintenance – commitments.

Sub-Contract Labour
✓ The company will maximise the use of its own employees in the first instance. Where
local arrangements do not allow for efficient delivery of local commitments, sub -
contractors may be used to supplement resource levels as required by workload,
including requirements for specialist skills and access issues. The need for sub-
contract labour will be discussed at local level as part of the terms of roster meeting.

Opting into the GTRM / CARILLION / IMC25 contract.

✓ This IMC25 is the standard contract for new starters only on appointment to first
role. The standard contract (IMC25) will be offered on promotion to current
colleagues but isn’t compulsory so individuals can stay on existing contract.
✓ A significantly higher mean for maintenance base pay as well as mean total pay

Current Mean Base Salary Mean Base Salary after Opt In

Operative 28,055 29,290
Technician 32,560 34,595
Team Leader 37,968 41,156

**table excludes proposed increase to London Allowances

✓ Holiday entitlement provides a maximum of 32 annual (after 10 years) and 6 public
holiday days, which is the best annual leave benefit for maintenance / works
delivery.
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✓ Attached presentation in Appendix D which sets out the GTRM / Carillion / IMC25
contract against each respective IMC contract
✓ A comparison calculator is available on our internal SharePoint site to help
colleagues decide on their future and what makes the best sense for them. We share
a vision of maximising better ways of working with attractive total reward packages
– for some people that might mean changing contract – for others it may mean
staying with current arrangements – that’s why it’s a choice.

Overtime Working
✓ When fully implemented we expect the changes to working practices for the
Maintenance and Works Delivery organisations to reduce the need for overtime
working.
o For example, the introduction of joint incident response teams will impact
the requirement to call on colleagues to attend incidents and work in
addition to their rostered hours at short notice. As a result, colleagues can
expect less disruption to their home lives.
✓ In summary, overtime working is expected to be at a lower level than today. It will
remain a mechanism that allows us to provide a reliable service for passengers.

Modernising maintenance implementation

✓ Following months of discussions (both informally and formally), it is acknowledged
that National Maintenance Council consultation has concluded regarding changes
to working practices and numbers of colleagues employed without agreement. Local
consultation regarding implementation of those national principles is underway

Our fresh proposals are offered, and it is requested that a further referendum commences
(without a recommendation to reject) in good faith and that there is time for effective
communication allowing answers to questions from employees. If the offer is accepted, it
will exhaust and resolve the current dispute (as notified to the Company in April 2022) and
no further industrial action shall be taken in respect of the current dispute.
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Productivity items having been discussed by representatives at National Operations Council

and National Maintenance Council and are detailed in the enclosed appendices (as
applicable to the staff you represent); implementation of these items enables the following
two-year pay offer to be made. Full details are itemised in Appendices A, B and C.

We would like to resolve this dispute with you. Looking forward, we want to avoid any
dispute and work in a more strategic and collaborative way., We would like to jointly work
on how we can have a successful working relationship for the benefit of Network Rail
employees and your members.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Shoveller
Regional Managing Director, North West and Central
Encls

Appendix A Schedule of Productivity items: Operations

Appendix B Working Arrangements (“WA”) Maintenance and Works Delivery
(Construction Services)
Appendix C Attendance and Sickness Absence at Work
Appendix D Clarification of the standardisation of employment contracts in
maintenance and works delivery to Carillion / GTRM (IMC 25)
Appendix E Current long service award measures
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APPENDIX A: SCHEDULE OF PRODUCTIVITY ITEMS - OPERATIONS

SIGNALLERS, AND SUPERVISORS

Job Security 1. National principles for bands 5 to 8 (the people process) agreed and
communicated

Recruitment 1. The re-introduction of a 6-month probationary period for new starter

and training contracts. All roles that require training to be given a second opportunity
to complete training if not successful first time around, if this second
opportunity extends beyond the 6-month probationary period that
probationary period will be extended in line.
2. Fixed term contracts will not be used to cover signalling/supervisory
grades, unless agreed at National Operations Council.
3. Standardised training salaries for external new starters to signalling roles:
o During initial IST training the training salary will be at grade 2. On
completion of IST training and when location training commences
on a panel / workstation, the individual will move to grade 4
(unless it is a lower graded post that they are training for).
o Upon passing competent for first workstation/panel commitment
to keep employee off the base roster until full required
competency is achieved unless cover is required or as part of
agreed training plans.
4. Revised notice periods:
o 4 months’ notice from the employee to the company after 5 years’
service
o 4 months’ notice from the company to the employee after 5 years’
service
o Birmingham New Street dispatchers remain unchanged
5. New hires to be hired into a general geographical area as consulted at
Route council. There will be no demotion because of this.
6. Ability to hire comparable roles without readvertising. Where a post has
been advertised and filled, should a similar post (same grade, same
location) become available within 18 weeks of the original post being
advertised.
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7. Ability to hire post from candidate pools. Where there is a sufficient

quality pipeline of candidates in an appropriate location, we hire directly
from this list without advertising, within 18 weeks of advertising as in the
above point.
8. Reintroduction of the 52-week rule for new entrants (and for those that
have joined within the last 12 months), so that the individual cannot move
to a new post within the year of their appointment (consideration will be
given to exceptional circumstances).
9. For existing employees, the introduction of a 26-week rule so that the
individual cannot move to a new post within 26 weeks of their
appointment, (consideration will be given to exceptional circumstances).
10. Employees to be released within 4 months of appointment into a role
unless mutually agreed.
Flexibility 1. Introduction of employer justified retirement age to match state pension
age. The details of how this will be phased in and over what period, etc.
will be discussed with the trades unions, for agreement by end 2023.
2. Internal mobility – affording displaced employees from other disciplines
the opportunity to appreciate signalling roles so that they can consider
applying for these.
3. Updated National Rostering Principles (NRP) for signallers including the
resetting of local agreements where they are not compliant with the
revised NRP. This includes the arrangements for seeking agreement from
relief staff before being rostered an 8-hour night shift that precedes a
free day.
4. Flexibility on shift with notice. This may already be covered by local
agreements.
a) In emergencies signallers will work any panel / workstation they are
competent
b) With suitable notice for planned shifts, signallers can be asked to work
on a different position that they are competent to within the same
location.
5. Mobile Operations Managers will respond to support incidents on
adjoining areas, where competent to do so and in line with the MOM
role-based manual.
6. Secondments:
a) Secondments from Sig / Sup roles to Sig / Sup roles to cease and
HGD to be used.
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b) Secondments from non-Sig. / Sup. roles to Sig. / Sup. cease unless

circumstances agreed at Route council. Graduate placements to
continue as normal.
c) Sig. / Sup secondments to non-Sig. / Sup roles to continue as part of
career development.
Competence 1. Creation of a signaller job description.
Management 2. Competence evidence acquisition & demonstration in Railsmart EDS–
evidence based linked to progression and promotion.
3. A proactive approach to managing own competence by providing
evidence and incorporate this competence evidence into the recruitment
process.
Signalling 1. The mandated adoption of traffic management, but with the agreement
technology that only a signalling competent person will have with the authority to change
the path of live trains within a defined window of time.
ELECTRICAL CONTROL OPERATORS (ECO)
1. Revised notice periods:
a. Notice period of 4 months from employee after 5 years’ service, employees will
receive 4 months’ notice from company after 5 years’ service.
2. The reintroduction of a 6-month probationary periods into new starter contracts - All roles
that require training to be given a second opportunity to complete training if not successful
first time around, if this second opportunity extends beyond the 6-month probationary
period that probationary period will be extended in line.
3. Introduction of employer justified retirement age to match state pension age. The details
of how this will be phased in and over what period, etc. will be discussed with the trades
unions, for agreement by end 2023.
4. The mandated adoption of technology that is fit for purpose.   
MANAGED STATIONS
1. Engagement with managed stations intervention on Southern Region & Anglia Route
2. New and improved Managed Stations contract
3. New operating model design
BANDS 5 TO 8
1. Agreement of National Principles for bands 5 to 8 (the people process) agreed and
communicated.

SIGNALLERS, SUPERVISORS, ECO

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Employees who are stood down from duty for any circumstances other than for disciplinary
matters, for more than 12 weeks, will from the 12th week, be paid against their base roster and
not sick pay, where certified as fit by their GP but not by Occupational Health.
• Rostered Sundays in their base roster: these will also be paid along with any night
premium.
• For those without rostered Sundays in their base roster: an average will be taken of the
Sundays and any night premium worked by the individual in the 12 weeks when last in
work prior to being stood down, and this will be paid together with any flexibility
premium.

Where an employee has had the Occupational Health referral and is still unfit for work following
this, (or fit with restrictions that we cannot accommodate with reasonable adjustments), then
they would be treated as sick (as per the DWP guide) and their existing sick pay from their
original sickness will continue.
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APPENDIX B: WORKING ARRANGEMENTS (“WA”) MAINTENANCE AND WORKS

DELIVERY (CONSTRUCTION SERVICES)

Separate documents attached.

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APPENDIX C: ATTENDANCE AND SICKNESS ABSENCE AT WORK

• Network Rail will implement a new attendance and sickness absence management
policy to replace all other policies, effective from 01 April 2023. The policy will focus on
supportive and early interventions.
• The absence triggers will apply to those employees covered by the National
Maintenance Council and the National Operations Council, including Bands 5-8 for
fairness and consistency (see table below).
• A rolling 12-month sick pay period will be implemented, from 01 April 2023; there is no
change to entitlement to contractual sick pay.
• There will be joint training for Managers and trade union representatives on the new
attendance and sickness absence management policy, which will begin from March
2023.

Note that sick pay benefit and how it is accrued will not be changed in this proposal.

Standardised Absence Triggers and Warning Stages are below:

ABSENCE TRIGGERS • 3 instances or more of sickness absence or any 7 days or

more of sickness absence within a 13-week period or;

• 6 instances or more of sickness absence or any 14 days or

more of sickness absence within a 52-week period.

STAGES • Stage 1: Informal stage

(as per ACAS guidelines) • Stage 2: Possible action: First written warning
• Stage 3: Possible action: Final written warning
• Stage 4: Possible action: Dismissal
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APPENDIX D: CLARIFICATION OF THE STANDARDISATION OF EMPLOYMENT

CONTRACTS IN MAINTENANCE AND WORKS DELIVERY TO CARILLION / GTRM (IMC 25)

See separate attached presentation

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APPENDIX E: CURRENT LONG SERVICE AWARD ENTITLEMENT