The transport secretary Mark Harper will hold talks with rail union leaders later this week, according to his cabinet colleague Mel Stride.
The work and pensions secretary told TalkTV: “The secretary of state [Mark Harper] is actually meeting the rail union leaders later this week so there is that dialogue occurring”.
Stride also warned that strike action planned on the nation’s railways in December and January has been designed to create “maximum disruption”.
Yesterday, the RMT union announced that it would be staging a series of 48-hour strikes in December and January as part of a long-running dispute with the government over pay, jobs and conditions.
The announcement came as the union accused rail bosses of not fulfilling a promise to submit a written offer at the end of two weeks of talks.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has said the union has to respond to “broken promises” by senior officials
Thousands of members of the RMT working for Network Rail and fourteen train operating companies will walkout on from December 13th-14th and 16th-17th, as well as from January 3rd-4th and 6th-7th.
The union also announced an overtime ban which come into effect over the Christmas period from 18th December until 2nd January
Speaking to Talk TV, Mel Stride said: “What we need is more talking from the unions with the employers and less announcements of strikes… the consequence of this for families up and down the country, some of them quite serious incidentally, people trying to get to medical appointments for example, as well as the family reunions you have mentioned.
Lynch, who was also doing the media arounds this morning, defended the timing of the planned rail strikes.
Responding to the accusation that he appeared to be “The Grinch” ruining Christmas, he told ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” programme: “There is no good time to have a strike. We have left the Christmas period strike free deliberately.
“We cannot leave this action to go cold. We have not been on strike for two months, we moved other dates to facilitate important public and national events.
“If we just leave it they will impose the changes. Network Rail have already issues a statutory redundancy notice for 3,000 jobs and they will impose that if we do not resist what they are doing and come to a compromise”.
Mel Stride also told Sky News that the government is committed imposing minimum service levels during strikes by transport workers, although no timetable had been set out for the legislation.
The work and pensions secretary said: “The government has commitments in that area and to minimum service provision”.
