TAXPAYERS’ cash is pouring into the coffers of profiteering rail companies to ensure shareholders do not lose dividends as a result of strike action, Aslef leader Mick Whelan said today.

He accused companies of doing a “corrupt and immoral deal” with the government to keep the money rolling in while rail workers are told there is no cash available to give them a decent pay rise.

Train drivers staged a 24-hour stoppage today over pay, bringing rail services to a standstill and severe disruption to cross-border trains between Scotland and England.

The deal that sees taxpayers compensate rail companies for any profits lost through strike action is written into the franchises awarded by the government since privatisation of British Rail.

Mr Whelan said that the government had told operators that drivers’ pay increase should be limited to 2 per cent, despite inflation still in excess of 10 per cent.

Speaking from the picket line at London’s Euston station, he said: “These people here don’t work for the government, these people here don’t work for the DfT [Department for Transport], they don’t work for the Treasury, they work for the 15 companies that are out on strike today that are paying dividends and taking profits from the government while the people that work for them can’t get a pay rise.

“They’ve done a rather corrupt and immoral deal with the government that they won’t offer more than 2 per cent in pay. They’ve offered us nothing for four years, by the way.

“So the people that we work for want productivity [in exchange] for nothing for us, to sustain their profits, so we’re in a rather Monty Python-esque situation where we’re now paying the mill owner for the privilege to work, to maintain their profits, and that’s a government decision.

“The government has signed these contracts, only the government can lift these shackles.”

He said that train drivers have suffered a 25 per cent loss in real-terms pay over the last four years and that it is “inevitable” that further strikes will be held unless there is a breakthrough to the long-running row.

Members of rail union RMT will resume strike action on Friday in their long-running pay dispute.