LONDON,Oct 16/TT/– London Underground workers will strike for multiple days at the beginning of November over pay and working conditions.
Members of the Aslef trade union will walk out on Nov 7 and Nov 12, it was announced on Wednesday, as the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) also confirmed its members will strike the week before.
Aslef, the smaller of two unions representing Tube drivers, rejected an inflation-topping 3.8 per cent pay increase offer from Transport for London (TfL).
Unions also previously complained that London Underground managers had refused to discuss a reduction in Tube drivers’ working hours. TfL said Tube drivers are “scheduled to work a 36-hour week averaged over their whole rota”.
RMT also announced its members, which include signalling and station staff, will walk out on different days between Nov 1 and 8 after rejecting a “wholly inadequate” pay offer.
The union said some progress was made in negotiations, but maintained that the current proposal left a large number of staff excluded from collective bargaining.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told The Telegraph that both Aslef and RMT rejected three pay offers from London Underground over the past few months.
‘Non-consolidated payments’ rejected
Sources said that one of the main sticking points came about because the unions want to ensure their richest members get the same pay increases as the poorest.
Tube bosses want to introduce banded pay grades and pay rises given as a one-off bonus instead of part of drivers’ salaries for those outside the top pay band.
Such so-called “non-consolidated payments” were rejected by union negotiators, the sources said.
Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said: “London Underground’s pay offer falls short of what our members deserve. It threatens to remove collective bargaining for a growing portion of staff, pushing them into pay bands that are decided solely by management. This undermines our members’ rights and the core principles of fair negotiation.
