Planned strike action by TSSA members at Translink has been suspended following eleventh-hour pay offers by the company, averting significant disruption to Northern Ireland's transport network during The Open Championship.

The industrial action, due to begin today (18 July) and run until tomorrow, would have affected both Northern Ireland Railways and Ulsterbus services. The strike involved Clerical staff as well as those in the Management, Professional and Technical (MPT) grades.

However, after two days of intensive negotiations at the Labour Relations Agency (LRA), union officials and Translink reached a breakthrough. The new pay proposals will now be put forward to union members in the affected groups for consideration. Last week, TSSA members in Supervisor Grades, including railway controllers, accepted a separate pay offer, thereby suspending their planned strike action for the same dates. At the time, the union had warned that unless acceptable deals were also reached for Clerical and MPT staff, widespread disruption was still likely.

Although the latest offers have led to a suspension of the strikes, the dispute remains unresolved. A TSSA spokesperson confirmed that all planned industrial action is paused pending the outcome of member consultations.

Commenting, Maryam Eslamdoust, General Secretary, TSSA said: "We feel that sufficient progress has been made with Translink to suspend the planned strikes. This is not an end to the matter because it will now be up to our Clerical and MPT members to decide if the offers made are good enough.  

"From the start we have only asked for fairness and parity with other workers at Translink, and we could have reached this point some time ago had the company been in listening mode.  

"Our members play a vital role - keeping public transport running safely every day of the year, with all the responsibility that entails – they should be paid accordingly."