London, Dec 1 (IANS): Members of the UK's largest transport union RMT announced that it has accepted a pay offer to pause their rail strikes while negotiations continue.

The offer included a backdated pay rise of 5 per cent for the 2022-23 financial year, while talks over further deals will be pushed into next year, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Our members have spoken in huge numbers to accept this unconditional pay offer and no compulsory redundancies," said Mick Lynch, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

"We will be negotiating further with the train operators over reforms they want to see. And we will never shy away from vigorously defending our members' terms and conditions, now or in the future," Lynch added.

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, welcomed the decision, saying that "agreements have now been reached with three out of the four unions involved in the recent industrial dispute".

Despite the RMT agreement, passengers still face travel disruption in early December, as the UK's train drivers' union ASLEF has decided on further walkouts.

Widespread strikes started in the summer of 2022 amid disputes over pay and working conditions.

Official figures show that up to 2.472 million working days were estimated lost between June and December 2022, of which over three-quarters came from workers in transport, storage, information and communication.