The dire state of industrial relations at the country's biggest rail franchise has been revealed in figures showing that four out of five train drivers voted in favour of strikes before a ballot was suspended.
Aslef asked around 1,000 of its members at Southern Railway and the Gatwick Express if they wanted to take industrial action over claims of a breakdown in industrial relations.
The union suspended the ballot last week, but it is understood that four out of five drivers backed strikes before the voting was halted, with nine out of 10 supporting other forms of industrial action.
READ MORE: Southern Railway to reinstate 119 daily train services on September 5
It is understood Aslef took the decision after being threatened with legal action.
The union made no comment.
A Southern spokesman said: "We welcome the decision by Aslef to suspend their ballot notice over a 'breakdown in industrial relations' and that it will not take any further action in relation to the ballot notice, or the ballot.
"We are continuing to work with Aslef to address their concerns that led to the dispute."
READ MORE: Southern Railway to reinstate 119 daily train services on September 5
Southern and the Gatwick Express are part of the Govia Thameslink franchis
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here