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Arriva Trains Wales drivers are set to be re-balloted over possible industrial action again after talks to come to agreement over pay broke down again.

Trade union ASLEF said that Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) had “reneged on the agreed disputes resolution” made earlier this month and that they were left with no option other than to re-ballot their members for industrial action.

Read more: Arriva Trains Wales strike CANCELLED after progress made in last minute talks

Earlier this month a planned two-day strike was averted after last minute talks found an agreement.

Moving the goalposts?

But Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary, said today: “After arriving at a deal with Arriva Trains Wales that we were happy to put to our members, the operator has subsequently moved the goal posts by changing the length of the shifts our members are expected to work.

“We had hoped to avoid this action, because we always work hard to find a resolution to problems without strike action, but this is no way to conduct industrial relations in the 21st century and the actions of ATW management have left us with no choice other than to re-ballot our members.”

What's the key issue in this dispute?

The current base salary for a driver is £43,869 which will rise to £44,966, but the rail union RMT said the key issue at the heart of the dispute had been the unwillingness of Arriva Trains Wales to table an adequate pay offer despite unions postponing previous strike action to allow for further meaningful discussions to take place.

Arriva has said they have offered a generous above inflation three year pay deal with a 2.5% increase in year one and reduced the maximum working day to nine hours and 30 minutes from 10 hours, 30 minutes.

They also agreed to conduct a feasibility study into improving rest break arrangements.

'Misunderstanding'

Gareth Thomas, HR Director at Arriva Trains Wales said: "We have today received instruction from ASLEF that they propose to re-ballot their members on industrial action following a misunderstanding of our offer which was clarified at the request of drivers.

"The locally elected company council were in full agreement with the terms of the deal. There appears to have been a misunderstanding between the locally elected representatives with whom the detail of the deal was agreed and ASLEF’s national executive.

"Once again, we find ourselves in a position that the parts of the union closest to our people were in agreement with the detail of the deal but the National Executive of ASLEF who were not involved in any discussions until Nov 11th, (talks started in June), seem to be unclear about the details of the deal which we believed to be acceptable to drivers locally."