Network Rail strike talks to go into fourth day

Talks aimed at averting a national strike by Network Rail workers in a dispute over pay are due to resume later.

Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members are set to hold a 24-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 4 June and a 48-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 9 June.

On Thursday the union rejected a fresh pay offer by Network Rail.

Both sides have been talking with conciliation service Acas since Friday.

The workers, including signallers and maintenance staff, are also planning to ban overtime from 6-12 June.

The RMT's 16,000 members at Network Rail work across the company's operations and maintenance departments.

A planned strike over last week's bank holiday was suspended after Network Rail tabled a revised pay offer to workers.

Network Rail originally offered a four-year deal of a single £500 payment followed by three years of rises in line with RPI inflation.

But the revised offer was for two years, with a 1% rise this year, and a rise of about 1.4% next year. It was also established that there would be no compulsory redundancies for the duration of the agreement.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has previously said he considered strike action "unnecessary and unreasonable".