Olympic payments ‘money for nothing on a grand scale’, says First Great Western

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First Great Western has slammed RMT’s demands for Olympics payments as “money for nothing on a grand scale” following the union’s decision to ballot its members for strike action.

Yesterday, RMT announced it would be balloting First Great Western (FGW) members for both strike action and action short of a strike after rejecting proposals tabled by the train operator.

Managing director of FGW Mark Hopwood said: “For clarity, the RMT is asking  for extra money for all on-board and station staff in the company working during the Olympics from as far and wide as Cornwall, South Wales and the North Cotswolds, regardless of whether they are affected by additional Olympics passengers or not.  Quite simply, this is ‘money for nothing’ on a grand scale when we should be celebrating this great national event.”

Mr Hopwood added: “We have just received official notification from the RMT about their intention to ballot, so it is difficult to comment specifically at this stage. However, we are willing to discuss their concerns with a view to reaching a successful conclusion.

“On top of the 1,500 timetabled services we run every day, on average we will be running fewer than nine additional scheduled services a day during the Games – that’s an increase of just over 0.5 per cent.

“The vast majority of our staff will come to work during the Olympics and do what they do every other day of the year.  We have many major events and extremely busy times of the year on our network, and we expect the Olympics to be no different.”

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