Alstom Derby: Train safety engineers set for industrial action

Workers could be set to walk out on four separate days

Workers responsible for maintaining and preparing trains across the East Midlands are set to take strike action.

About 70 workers at Alstom Engineering in Derby are set to walk out over four days from Wednesday.

Their trade union, Unite, said Alstom had "failed to make any form of a pay offer".

An Alstom spokesperson said they were in contact with the union "to address their concerns and come to a resolution before next week".

The workers are responsible for service and preparation of trains and carriages, fault finding and logging of incidents online and general problems with the fleet for East Midlands Railway.

'Safety-critical roles'

Industrial action is "likely to create a shortage" of available rolling stock, according to Unite.

It also warned further dates are likely to be announced if "Alstom fails to return to the negotiating table with an offer".

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Alstom has won lucrative contracts for maintaining trains and yet it has seen fit to fail to offer a pay increase for workers performing highly-skilled and safety-critical roles.

"Our members are rightly angry at the lack of a pay offer from Alstom."

The BBC understands Alstom sent a pay offer to Unite on Thursday and members are expected to be balloted on the proposal.