STAFF on Virgin Trains East Coast are staging a 24-hour strike next week in a dispute over jobs, working conditions and safety.
Members of the RMT union will take part in the one-day walkout on Monday October 3 after talks between the trade union and the operator broke down.
It comes after VTEC, which operates services between Edinburgh and London King's Cross, announced that it was was making changes to customer-facing roles which would "see a single person take responsibility for the customer experience on our trains".
The RMT union claims the measures would lead to job cuts and impact on working conditions and safety measures which currently ensure a conductor on every train.
It said nearly 200 jobs were threatened by the cuts and remaining staff would be expected to cover the extra work.
VTEC has rebuffed the claims and said the changes would have "no impact" on safety and that it had assured the union there would be no compulsory redundancies.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT will not sit back while nearly 200 members' jobs are under threat and while conditions and safety are put at risk by a franchise which is clearly in financial trouble. We will also not tolerate the cavalier attitude to safety that is now on show as the company mobilises its scab army of managers.
“The union suspended an earlier programme of action when it looked like serious progress was being made in talks but that process has now failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion and we are back into industrial action as a result."
The East Coast franchise was taken over by a consortium of Virgin Trains and Perth-based Stagecoach in 2015, after more than five years in the public sector. Although the trains bear the Virgin livery and branding, Stagecoach is actually the 90 per cent stakeholder.
However, there have been persistent rumours that the consortium over-bid for the franchise and is now running at a substantial loss.
David Horne, managing director of Virgin Trains East Coast, said it would run a full timetable on Monday despite the strike.
He said: "With our guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies, no impact on safety and a full timetable in place during the walk-outs, these strikes will cost RMT members pay for no reason, and we urge the union to rejoin us around the negotiating table."
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