ELIZABETH Line workers have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action for the first time after rejecting the latest pay offer.

Members of Prospect at Rail for London Infrastructure (RfLI) have rejected a four per cent pay offer for 2022, which the union said was well below inflation. The dates for the industrial action are not yet known.

Prospect members carry out safety work on the Elizabeth Line – which runs between Reading and Shenfield in Essex and calls at Maidenhead, Slough, and Langley – as well as Heathrow Airport.

In a statutory ballot, 94 per cent voted for strike action with 92 per cent backing other forms of industrial action on a turnout well above the regulatory threshold of 50 per cent.

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Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said: “Our members have worked incredibly hard to get the Elizabeth Line ready to go safely into operation yet they are being treated significantly worse than equivalent workers on the rest of London’s network.

“The Elizabeth Line itself is now bringing in large extra passenger revenue for TfL and is underspent on its budget so there really ought to be room for some movement on pay.

“Our members don’t want to go on strike but pay is so far behind inflation that they simply cannot manage.

“We remain open to negotiation and it is our hope that RfLI will come back to the table with an offer sufficient to avert industrial action.”

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Reacting to the news, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council leader Andrew Johnson tweeted: “At a time when we should be working to power the UK and southeast economy back to steady growth and continuing to promote sustainable transport, this is really not good news.

“Both parties need to work to resolve this ASAP.”