Translink workers to vote on industrial action over pay offer

The members of Transport and Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) will be asked to vote on a possible strike.

The row involves employees at management, professional and technical (MPT) grades.

Translink said the proposed action was regrettable but stressed it only involved a small number of its overall workforce.

TSSA is distributing ballots to their members today.

The union’s general secretary Manuel Cortes claimed: “After almost a year of waiting for the company to come to the table, our members received an offer which was 1% lower than every other grade in Translink.

“The company have since refused our requests to reconvene talks to find a resolution to our members’ justifiable grievance.”

Mr Cortes said the union was willing to enter talks with management during the ballot period.

“All our MPT members want is to be shown the same respect as their colleagues in terms of pay and consultation rights,” he added.

A Translink spokeswoman said the company was aware of the proposed ballot among a “small group of employees”.

“This proposed action is regrettable,” she said.

“We will continue to work in a positive manner with our professional and technical employees as we await the outcome of this ballot”.

TSSA issued Translink with a dispute notice in February following a rejection of their offer of a 1% pay increase in the managerial, professional and technical grades – which TSSA said was less than half the offer being made to other workers within the company.