Arriva Trains Wales rugby match day strike called off

Up to 32,000 rugby fans use Arriva Trains Wales services on an international rugby match day

A strike by train drivers on the day of the Six Nations rugby clash between Wales and England at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff has been called off.

The rail union RMT said the decision had been made on legal advice.

Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) had launched legal proceedings to avert Friday's strike, which was announced last week after pay talks with unions failed.

An ATW spokesman said it would mean "a full and comprehensive timetable of services" for the rugby match.

An estimated 32,000 fans usually use ATW's services on Six Nations match days.

The union said its members at ATW would be re-balloted over taking industrial action.

Meanwhile, they have been instructed to work normally on Friday.

The decision to cancel the strike was in part taken as a result of legal action over its dispute with the Docklands Light Railway in London, the union said.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "While our fight for pay justice for our driver members on Arriva Trains Wales remains well and truly on, we have now received further legal advice on the nature of the anti-trade union laws in respect of recent court judgments.

"Nobody should be in any doubt about how the noose of the anti-union laws has been tightened around workers' necks and it's the full weight of those undemocratic laws that has been brought in to play in this dispute.

"It remains the case that ATW drivers are some of the worst paid in the country and that all they are fighting for is a comparable wage, a pay increase that protects their standards of living without strings and working conditions that ensure a decent work/life balance. That fight goes on."

ATW said it had offered a 12% pay rise over two years but the union disputes the figure.

ATW has said its "generous" offer would take a train driver's basic salary to £39,117 with time and a quarter on Sunday.

'Timetable'

The union has said the rise for this year was actually 3.7% and an effective pay cut.

The chosen strike day coincided with Wales kicking off their Six Nations campaign with an evening match against England at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

An ATW spokesman said: "We welcome the RMT union's decision to call off their planned industrial action on Friday, which will mean ATW will be able to provide a full and comprehensive timetable of services for the rugby international and across the rail network in Wales."

Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns said a strike would have been "disastrous".

He added: "I am naturally troubled that they say it was cancelled on legal advice, rather than a recognition of the safety concerns, inconvenience and PR disaster it would have caused Wales".