ScotRail boss 'nonplussed' at pay offer rejection

The head of ScotRail has said he is "nonplussed" over the RMT union's rejection of a "cracking" revised pay offer.

Managing director Alex Hynes told BBC Scotland he could not understand why the union had not put a 5% rise in basic pay to its members.

RMT members are due to take action on Monday, halting most ScotRail services.

Mr Hynes also apologised to ScotRail customers for the forthcoming disruption.

He said: "We think we made a cracking offer - 5% on basic pay, a job guarantee for six years and a one-off technology payment of £500.

"No-one wins when people take strike action. There is a lot of industrial activity happening across the GB network right now and we are doing our best to try and avoid it."

The call to put the offer to a ballot of RMT members was echoed by the Scottish government, which took over the ScotRail franchise from Abellio six months ago.

Monday's action will leave only three routes on a limited service.

Plans set out by the train operator show that there will be half-hourly trains between Milngavie and Edinburgh, between Glasgow and Lanark and between Glasgow and Larkhall. These will run between about 07:30 and 18:30.

That means there will be no services north of the central belt, none through Forth Valley, in Fife, Ayrshire or the south of Scotland. Cross-border services, on the east and west coast main lines, should not be affected on Monday.

Mr Hynes said ScotRail would be sitting down with the RMT after Monday's industrial action "to try and seek their views on the revised offer, understand why they rejected it and hopefully continue to negotiate to a resolution".

He added: "Obviously all these disputes end in compromise. We will continue to talk.

"We had great talks last week in fact. We were very optimistic and the feedback we got from the RMT was positive, so we are a bit nonplussed by it, to be honest."

Next week's strike is part of a wave of industrial action on the railways across the UK.

One involves a dispute by Network Rail staff who maintain the infrastructure, such as tracks and signalling.

They are unhappy about the future of jobs, as well as pay and conditions, and are due to walk out on Saturday.