Holiday ban on rail staff after strike threat

Rail chiefs are banning staff from taking holidays over Easter in preparation for a national strike.

The two biggest rail unions, the TSSA and RMT, are conducting strike ballots in protest over plans by Network Rail to get rid of 1,500 maintenance jobs.

The unions have pencilled in strike action during the run-up to Easter at the start of April.

Steve Featherstone, infrastructure maintenance director at Network Rail, tells managers in an email: "I assume that you can put local arrangements in place to control holiday requests from all employees during the likely strike window."