It REALLY does pay to strike! How the 15% wage bump for train drivers sees them rake in more than police officers, teachers, nurses and junior doctors... so as GPs now bid for an 11% funding hike, who will Keir bow to next?

The Labour Government was today claimed to be 'throwing money at its union paymasters like confetti' after agreeing a bumper pay deal with train drivers.

Ministers have struck a deal with Aslef union chiefs which will see the average driver's salary soar by 14 per cent to about £69,000 excluding overtime by 2025.

This would ensure drivers receive more than double the average pay of prison officers (£33,900), construction workers (£31,326) and postal workers (£29,641).

Other comparative figures based on Office for National Statistics mean pay data for 2023 include couriers at £25,797, nursery workers at £34,764, librarians at £36,183, community nurses at £37,683, midwifes at £40,952 and police officers at £43,713.

It comes after the new Government signed off a 5.5 per cent pay increase for most other public sector workers - estimated to cost taxpayers £9.4billion. Ministers have also offered junior doctors a 22 per cent pay hike, to cost an extra £1.1billion.

But there are now concerns that other public sector workers will be queuing up for a 15 per cent rise and could take industrial action to get what they want despite inflation falling to 2.2 per cent having hit a 40-year high of 11 per cent in 2022.

Among the groups who could be next are GPs who have been offered a 7.4 per cent funding rise worth about £500million but are said to be demanding 11 per cent - nd are currently taking action which includes reducing the number of patients they see.

Meanwhile Aslef said LNER train drivers will stage a series of strikes every weekend until November, citing a collapse in industrial relations and breaking of agreements. 

After the offer to train drivers, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail: 'Labour is throwing money at its union paymasters like confetti.

'The unions have said 'we've put up with 14 years of Tory government, now we want payback for all the times we supported you'. And it's not going to stop there.

'Once you give in to one or two on such a grand scale, everybody else feels like it's Christmas. And taxes will have to rise to cover it all.'

But Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said it was 'unfair' to suggest more public sector workers could strike in light of the recent pay offers.

The paymaster general said the Government was 'sticking to the promises we made in opposition' in its deals with public sector workers.

Pay rises for other public sector workers were announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she laid out plans for public expenditure in the early weeks of Labour coming to power.

And when it was put to Mr Thomas-Symonds that other public sector workers will be queuing up for a 15 per cent pay rise, he disagreed.

'I think that's an unfair characterisation as well,' he told Times Radio. 'I think what is absolutely crucial here is we are a Government again that is sticking to the promises we made in opposition.

'We promised we would sit down and find solutions, and people expressed scepticism about that, but actually that is precisely what we have done in Government.'

He said it was wrong to suggest there would be no reform of the railways alongside the pay offer, adding: 'We are absolutely looking to deliver a better service for passengers and, frankly, it's a low bar given the state the railways have been in in recent years.'

Aslef's dispute is believed to be the longest-running one of its kind in the history of Britain's railways, according to the union.

The drivers are being recommended to accept the offer, which would end the two-year-long dispute, during which they have taken 18 days of strike action as well as refusing to work non-contractual overtime, causing huge disruption to passengers.

Industry estimates suggest the pay rise, which is pensionable, could cost as much as £100million. It is more generous than the previous government's offer of 8 per cent over two years.

This also included conditions around reforming antiquated and costly working rules, dubbed 'Spanish practices', that the Tory administration wanted, and which would have reduced the cost of running the railways.

The new offer comprised a 5 per cent hike for 2022/23, 4.75 per cent for 23/24 and 4.5 per cent for 24/25. It will take the average train driver's salary up from £60,000 to £69,000.

But today, Aslef said train drivers on LNER would stage a series of strikes every Saturday between August 31 and November 9 and every Sunday from September 1 to November 10, a total of 22 days.

The dispute is separate from the long-running row over pay, which is set to be resolved after a new offer this week from the Government.

Aslef says there has been a breakdown in industrial relations, "bullying" by management, and "persistent breaking" of agreements by the company.

However, LNER said: "We are surprised and disappointed to hear this news following recent constructive conversations.’

Attention is now focusing on GPs, with the Daily Telegraph reporting yesterday that they want an 11 per cent funding increase following other public sector pay rises.

Family doctors are currently taking part in industrial action after voting in favour of a ballot which threatened to bring the NHS to a 'standstill'.

Letters reportedly sent by the British Medical Association (BMA) union to its members state that the Government has awarded GPs a funding increase of 7.4 per cent – worth around £500million - for 2024/25.

The increase would be in the form of a rise to per-patient funding for practices. But the BMA wants an increase of 10.7 per cent over concerns the offer does not represent a 'real-terms' pay rise.

The letter, seen by news site GPonline, claims the amount is 'reasonable' due to pay rises given to other doctors and comes amid ongoing action by GPs which includes reducing the number of patients a doctor can see to 25 a day.

It comes just over a fortnight after the Government confirmed a new pay offer for junior doctors in England which is worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years and has been put to junior doctor members at the BMA.

If accepted, the deal will see junior doctors' pay rise by between 3.71 per cent and 5.05 per cent – averaging 4.05 per cent – on top of their existing 8.8 per cent average pay award for 2023/24. This will be backdated to April 2023.

Each part of the pay scale will also be uplifted by 6 per cent, plus £1,000, as recommended by the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration (DDRB), with an effective date of April 1, 2024.

Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400. 

A full-time doctor entering specialty training will have basic pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.

Meanwhile the government has awarded NHS staff in England a 5.5 per cent pay rise for 1.3million workers including nurses and paramedics.

The Unison union said staff will see this increase in their October pay packet, along with six months of back pay they are owed from April 1.

The rise means a newly-qualified Band 5 will see their salary go up from £28,408 to £29,969.

About 500,000 teachers will also see a pay rise of 5.5 per cent, resulting in their average salary going up from £43,801 to £46,210.

The Government also announced in late July that Armed Forces personnel will receive a 6 per cent pay rise – which is the largest in 22 years.

It means the average starting rate for Other Ranks after initial training rises from £23,496 to £25,200 from April 1.