UNION DEMANDS “WOULD COST £1.4 BILLION” SAY TfL / NIGHT TUBE DELAYED
UNION DEMANDS “WOULD COST £1.4 BILLION” SAY TfL
New demands made by certain trade union leaderships over the modernisation of London Underground (LU), including the introduction of the Night Tube, would lead to significantly higher fares for LU customers or spell wholesale delay to vital improvements to London’s Tube service, say Transport for London.
“Every penny of LU’s income is reinvested to run and improve the Tube, so ultimately it is fare payers who would bear the cost if LU management were to give in to these demands” said a TfL statement.
“No responsible management could ever agree to do that.
“The cost of these demands would be around £1.4 billion over the life of the TfL Business Plan to 2023/24. This would demand either an immediate extra fares increase of 6.5 per cent on top of the annual increases already assumed or a wholesale scaling back of vital plans to modernise Tube lines, including the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines
“The current union demands include:
Guaranteed above inflation pay rises into the future
A reduced 32 hour, four day week for the same full time salary, and no Night Tube duties, even though LU staff are already employed on contracts requiring 24-hour working
Bonus payments to cover a short transitional period to be paid forever, even when drivers have the individual choice whether or not to work Night Tube shifts at all
Payments to be made to staff on lines where the Night Tube will not even be operating
Re-hiring hundreds of staff for back office jobs that Oyster, contactless payment and other modernisation mean no longer need to be performed
The extra 6.5 per cent fares increase would, for example, mean:
An annual Zone 1-2 Travelcard immediately rising by an extra £83
An annual Zone 1-6 Travelcard immediately rising by an extra £152.
“The affordable and sustainable pay offer made by LU is:
A two per cent salary increase this year and inflation protected rises in 2016 and 2017
£500 bonus for all staff on Night Tube lines
£200 extra per Night Tube shift for drivers and then freedom to decide whether or not to work Night Tube shifts at all
£500 bonus for the successful completion of the modernisation of LU stations by February 2016
“LU has shared draft Night Tube rosters with staff to demonstrate how work-life balance has been protected.
“These rosters will not be ‘imposed’ but are the basis for negotiation with the unions. The guarantees include:
No-one will work more hours than they do today to run the Night Tube
Every driver on the Night Tube will have the same, if not more, weekends off
After the transition, they will have a choice about whether or not they work Night Tube shifts or not
Everybody will remain entitled to two days off in seven
Annual leave will remain significantly above the national average – 43 days for a train operator, 52 days for station staff.
“The Night Tube will operate on Friday and Saturday nights on five of LU’s eleven lines – the Jubilee, Piccadilly, Central, Northern and Victoria lines.
“To minimise the impact of Night Tube on shift patterns, 500 extra staff have been recruited. Customer Service Assistants in stations will have to work a maximum of three extra Night Tube shifts per year, with many not affected at all.” (Source: TfL press release.)
NIGHT TUBE DELAYED
Responding to the announcement that the launch of the Night Tube will be delayed, Labour’s London Assembly transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross said:
“With Boris Johnson’s blundering approach to launching the Night Tube, sadly this delay comes as little surprise. “If you try and launch a major project without speaking to the people you’ll be relying on to deliver it, it’s never going to end well.
“Instead of hiding on the side-lines, Boris Johnson should have been at the forefront of negotiations, making sure staff were happy and that the launch of the Night Tube was running to schedule.
“He now needs to be completely honest with Londoners about exactly when this service will be delivered and if nothing else offer some certainty to the capital’s businesses who need to put their own plans in place.”
Val Shawcross is the London Assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark. (Source: GLA Labour party press release).
