Train guards will be get a £300 bonus every time they work a five-day week under a new overtime deal signed off by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh.
The agreement was reached at the end of last month to stop staff at CrossCountry going on strike every Saturday this month.
The operator, which runs a patchwork of intercity services from Penzance to Aberdeen, had incurred the wrath of the RMT union by using managers to fill in for rank and file staff at weekends.
Staff typically work a four-day week and have been paid time and a half for working on a Saturday.
However, they will now get a £300 bonus and their pay at the normal rate until the middle of next month.
The extraordinary arrangement was made alongside the bumper pay deals that were done to end national rail disputes. Guards and other rail workers were handed a 9.5 per cent pay rise over two years.
It puts fresh focus on Ms Haigh, who was publicly slapped down by Keir Starmer over the weekend for urging Brits to boycott P&O Ferries.
The comments sparked fury from the firm’s parent company, Dubai-based DP World, which threatened to pull £1billion of investment ahead of the PM’s vaunted global business summit tomorrow.
The Saturday bonus payments will be backdated to August under the deal and comes days after Labour struck a nationwide deal that gives guards and other rail workers a 9.5 per cent pay rise over two years.
Shadow transport secretary Helen Whately told The Sunday Times: ‘Rail unions can’t get enough of this government. They now know that every time they go on strike Labour will cave.’
A DfT spokesperson said: ‘While this is a local matter for CrossCountry, it’s crucial that passengers receive a more reliable service, on every day of the week – something our overhaul of the railways will help deliver.’
Meanwhile, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds wriggled on whether he agreed with Ms Haigh’s call for a boycott of P&O Ferries.
Mr Reynolds merely insisted it was ‘not the government’s position’ as he was repeatedly grilled over his Cabinet colleague’s attack.
Pressed on whether he would shun the operator Mr Reynolds said he had ‘not used a ferry recently’, suggesting it would depend on whether they were committed to fair treatment of staff.
He admitted that the government needed to ‘have a conversation’ with the firm’s Dubai-based owner DP World, which threatened to pull a £1billion investment package.
Sir Keir – who finally acknowledged this weekend that his first 100 days in power have been ‘choppy’ – desperately moved to save the deal by issuing a slapdown to Ms Haigh.
But Ms Haigh and Angela Rayner – who jointly issued the press release last week slamming P&O Ferries for firing 800 staff in 2022 – are said to be ‘hopping mad’.
In an interview on Sky News this morning, Mr Reynolds denied that Ms Haigh had ‘undermined’ the summit saying she is ‘part of the team’.
On whether he felt the same way about the need for a boycott, Mr Reynolds said: ‘That’s not the government’s position.’
Tories pointed to the row as evidence of the damage Labour’s ‘student politics’ will do to the country’s prospects.
The spat began when Ms Haigh and Ms Rayner trumpeted new legislation to protest seafarers last week, criticising P&O Ferries as a ‘rogue operator’.
The firm was slated by politicians from both main parties in March 2022 when it suddenly sacked 800 British seafarers and replaced them with cheaper, mainly overseas, staff, saying it was necessary to stave off bankruptcy.
Sir Keir said in an interview that Ms Haigh’s call for a boycott of the firm was ‘not the view of the Government’.
Officials are said to have spent hours ‘hitting the phones’ to repair the damage and re-confirm the announcement.
A source said that ‘there was a lot of engagement overnight’ – with assurances given that the Government did not support a P&O Ferries boycott.
Yesterday afternoon DP World announced it would go ahead after being given ‘the clarity we need’. The company also said its chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem would attend the summit.
It marks a frenzied start to the event, at which Ministers are launching a new industrial strategy that aims to ‘hardwire stability for investors’.
Sir Keir has finally acknowledged his government’s early travails on the BBC’s Newscast, admitting being PM was ‘much tougher than anything I’ve done before’.
He said: ‘There are always going to be choppy days, choppy moments, I’ve been through this before, you get these days and weeks when things are choppy.
‘There’s no getting around that, that is in the nature of government, you’re under there’s huge scrutiny.’
He went on to admit there had been ‘bumps and side winds, which, you know, I’d prefer we hadn’t bumped into and been pushed by’.
When pressed on what those were, he acknowledged he was referring to ‘stuff on donations, staffing issues, that sort of thing’.
The months of turbulence have seen an extraordinary plunge in Sir Keir’s personal ratings, with senior Labour figures demanding he gets a grip.