Hull Trains drivers vote to continue long-running strike action over sacked colleague

Drivers at Hull Trains have voted to continue their strike action over a colleague who was dismissed by the company.

The five-month dispute has led to varying amounts of disruption with Hull Trains sometimes running as few as three of its seven return services to London on weekdays.

The ballot result was 53% in favour of continuing the strikes until September 6. RAIL understands that’s down from 72% in February when industrial action began.

Members of the ASLEF union at the open access operator first voted in favour of strike action in February after a driver was dismissed after sharing information about their own workload and rostering during a company briefing about fatigue. At the end of March, ASLEF announced a further 56 days of strike action at Hull Trains.

The union says the driver has not done anything wrong, while Hull Trains’ management felt the information provided about the incident breached health and safety protocol.

ASLEF’S full-time organiser in the Northeast and lead officer with Hull Trains, Nigel Roebuck, said: “In a forward-thinking industry like ours we believe that individuals should be able to speak freely about their concerns without fear or favour, be it fatigue or mental health issues or anything else that affects their working lives.

“Our member has been driving trains for more than 20 years with a completely clean safety record. The company is punishing and penalising him for something he said, not for anything he has done. And what he said was perfectly polite, proper, and reasonable in the context of a safety meeting.”

Hull Trains said it was “disappointed” by the ballot.

“Hull Trains follows highly regulated industry standard agreements and procedures for safety. We have stringent safety reporting processes and provide extensive ongoing training and health and wellbeing support for our colleagues which has secured industry recognition,” a spokesman said.

"The company has made a number of proposals for a resolution of this matter with ASLEF. We remain committed to open dialogue to resolve this situation and avoid further disruption to our customers.”