Nottingham Station project: Rail staff vote for industrial action

Union members in Derby, Boston, Lincoln, Norwich, Nottingham, Sheffield were balloted on whether to take industrial action

Rail employees have voted to take industrial action in a row over working agreements and treatment of staff.

Rail union RMT said members would carry out the action, short of a strike, from Saturday 20 July - as major work begins at Nottingham station.

The union claims staff have not been offered compensation during major engineering works this summer.

An East Midlands Trains' spokeswoman said the planned action was "very disappointing".

"But it will have no impact on our ability to deliver our planned timetable for our customers throughout the Nottingham resignalling works," she added.

£100m project

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said procedures and working agreements were being ignored and there was a "culture of bullying, harassment and victimisation".

The action means staff will not work any overtime or rest days and will stick to contracted terms of employment.

Staff involved include train managers and senior conductors.

The Nottingham signalling work will take place from 20 July to 25 August.

During the engineering work, replacement buses will be used to take passengers and staff from Nottingham to East Midlands Parkway, near East Midlands Airport, where they will catch services to London and other destinations.

The £100m rail project involves laying six miles of new track, building a new platform and installing 140 signals.

Services between Nottingham and Skegness will also be affected, with trains starting and terminating at Grantham.

Network Rail, which is carrying out the work, said the changes would improve the speed of its rail services.