Train drivers at Southern Railway, which runs services between Ashford to London and between Ashford and stations in Sussex, are to go on strike this Christmas in a dispute over Bank Holiday pay.

Train driver union ASLEF said its members would walk out on 28th December because Southern would not recognise the day as a Bank Holiday and pay drivers extra for working on it.

Southern said it was extremely disappointed that the union had called for strike action and that it was complying fully with the well established terms and conditions agreed with the union.

A spokesman said "We appeal to them to come back to the table and help find a solution for the sake of our staff (their members) and passengers."

The union's is calling on members to strike between:

• 00:01 hours and 23.59 hours on 28th December 2009
• 00.01 hours and 23.59 hours on 27th December 2010
• 00.01 hours and 23.59 on 3rd January 2011

Update: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Southern ran trains to Folkestone. This was an error for which we appologize. We checked the Southern website and it showed trains as running from Folkestone. On rechecking, we now realise this was showing services by another operator. Thanks to the anonymous train driver who contacted us pointing this out.

> Southern Railway
> ASLEF

Picture (c) mattbuck4950 via flickr.com reproduced as per Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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