A PLAN which could have brought a long running dispute between Southern Railway and members of the RMT to an end has been revealed.

Today bosses at the train operator published a eight-point proposal which it made to the RMT at the conciliation service Acas last Friday which will retain the position of the conductor.

Crucially though, the offer stipulates that full control of closing the train's doors would move to the driver.

Members of the RMT are in the second of five days of industrial action over proposals by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the parent company of Southern, to change the role of the conductor.

The company wanted to scrap the role and bring in a new position of on-board supervisor.

The firm said there would be no redundancies or reduction of pay.

The RMT objected to the change as the new role would not be responsible for closing the doors of the train and its dispatch or be trained to the same safety-competent standards.

In the new offer the firm guarantee every train currently operated with a conductor will continue to be or second member of staff on board who will be trained to safety-competent standards including track safety training, evacuation, traction and full route knowledge (excluding train dispatch).

The RMT is holding a protest outside the Department for Transport tomorrow amid claims that the government has put a "blockade" on talks to end the dispute.

The union said it was "within an inch" of reaching an agreement during the Acas talks and repeated its claim that the Government had "sabotaged " any deal, again naming Transport Department official Peter Wilkinson as "directing operations from outside".

The Department denied the claims.

The union said a deal was being discussed based on an offer made last week by ScotRail in a similar dispute which led to strikes being suspended.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT can confirm that we were within an inch of making progress towards boxing off a deal with Southern in Acas talks on Friday afternoon that was based on the offer from ScotRail, an offer that enabled us to suspend all industrial action in the ScotRail guards dispute.

"We were just getting into the detailed wording when suddenly the plug was pulled and our legs were kicked from under us. We have it on good authority that the deal, which would have enabled us to suspend the Southern strike action this week, was sabotaged by the Government with their director of rail, Peter Wilkinson, directing operations from outside the talks.

"We are now taking our protest direct to the DfT. We want the Government to stop weaponising the Southern dispute for political purposes and we want them to stop treating passengers and staff as collateral damage in a war that Peter Wilkinson has unilaterally declared on the rail unions."

Charles Horton, GTR Chief Executive, said: "This comprehensive and incredibly fair offer is on top of existing commitments made on no compulsory redundancies, no reduction in salary, a guaranteed above-inflation pay-rise for two years, additional salary paid to staff working voluntary overtime and no compulsory location moves.

"Everyone is sick and tired of this pointless, needless and senseless strike, which is so damaging to people's everyday lives and the South-east economy, and causing undue disruption and hardship to customers and employees.

"I urge the RMT to come back to the table to talk, have constructive and productive discussions on the way forward and shake hands on a deal.

"We are prepared to meet them directly or through ACAS any time, any place, anywhere to let common sense prevail and give our customers back their trains and give them the service they expect.

“Finally I’d like to thank the one-in-five conductors who turned up to work yesterday. They have demonstrated their commitment to serving our passengers in the best way possible.

"The RMT claimed support for the strike was ‘rock solid’ when the reality is large numbers of conductors now recognise that this is a pointless strike."

The rail firm said the key points of the offer are:

• Guarantees that every train currently operated with a conductor will continue to have either a traditional conductor or a second member of staff on-board;

• Guarantees traditional conductors will retain their current competencies and second members of on-board will be trained to safety-competent standards including track safety training, evacuation, traction and full route knowledge (excluding train dispatch) which will pass to the driver;

• Joint agreement by both Southern and RMT on the driver having full control of train dispatch and joint agreement by both parties to a proposed list of exceptional circumstances whereby a train can run without a second member of staff on-board;

• Guarantees to retain the On-board Supervisor role (OBS) beyond 2021, should GTR retain the franchise and minimum levels of voluntary overtime for all OBS staff, details of which would be agreed with the RMT

• A joint review in 12 months time of the new OBS role to include role development, training and career progression;

• Collective bargaining rights for OBS staff.

The Campaign for Better Transport and a Southern passenger group, the Association of British Commuters, plan to march to the Department for Transport on Wednesday to call on the government to take urgent action to help resolve the Southern crisis.

The RMT is also calling for fresh talks.

Mick Cash has written to the company, saying: "The union believes that there is a deal to be done based around the ScotRail principles and that we need to pick up on the progress that was being made when the talks broke down on Friday.

"It is in no one's interests to prolong this dispute when the framework that can take us forward has been so clearly laid out."