Northern Ireland public transport strike: Businesses bosses plea to unions not to strike as pay rise money is already on table

​Public transport staff and educational support staff across Northern Ireland are due to strike tomorrow.

Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has pledged to release £600m to Stormont as it re-forms in order to settle pay disputes by unions.

An unprecedented day of strike across many unions took place across NI on January 18 in protest at pay award offers.

However, Hospitality Ulster chief executive Colin Neill and Retail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts urged the unions not to strike today.

“Given this week's political progress, we would call upon the transport unions to call off this strike as a gesture of goodwill,” they said in a joint statement.

“All the main political parties have now committed to getting the much-needed pay to all public sector workers and therefore a further strike is not necessary. It will only cause further disruption to our economy.

“We may have ministers in place at the weekend who will be in a position to work with the unions to find an agreed way forward. Going forward with this strike will only give a negative start to this process.”

Northern Ireland economist Esmond Birnie also opposed today's strike action.

Asked if he thought the unions had any rationale to strike with money already on the table for their pay rise, he replied: “Certainly not, given that it is now highly likely that at least some of the current public sector pay increase demands are going to have the necessary funding provided.”