by Steve Sweeney

RAIL union RMT has accused Southern Rail of forcing workers to “sign away their basic human rights” in a row over holiday pay.

The union says staff are set to receive a letter from the belligerent company warning that strikers will not receive holiday pay if they take part in any further industrial action.

RMT branded the move “vindictive” and says the demands amount to a serious breach in legislation.

“It’s despicable that Southern feels it necessary to try and hoodwink staff into signing an agreement with the sole purpose of stopping lawful industrial action,” said RMT general secretary Mick Cash.

A 48-hour strike is planned for next Tuesday in the long-running dispute over the removal of safety-critical guards from trains with further action planned in the run up to Christmas.

Mr Cash said the threat to withold holiday pay was an “outrageous and bullying attack” that had “more in common with a right-wing dictatorship than it does with a modern railway.”

However a Southern spokesman insisted: “Passengers have had to endure 17 days of strikes so far, with 11 more to come, causing misery and hardship to people’s work and family lives.

“We feel we cannot make these payments to conductors who are planning to take industrial action. They will be paid once the industrial action is over.”The union is considering legal action.

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