London is set for more than 24 hours of mass disruption after unions rejected the latest deal from Transport for London (TfL) in their ongoing dispute over Night Tube arrangements.
A strike is scheduled for 18.30 on Wednesday 5 August, with four unions set to bring the London Underground network to a standstill. No services are expected to run on Thursday, with normal service resumed on Friday.
Unite, Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT), Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and Aslef unions have confirmed that they will strike after rejecting an offer from TfL, which they labelled a ‘re-hash of previous plans’.
RMT officials said they were ‘furious’ after reading the offer and would launch a fresh publicity campaign to highlight the ‘heavy price’ the public will pay ‘in terms of safety, reliability and quality in order to get a few thousand revellers home from central London in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning’.
The Night Tube operations are due to start on 12 September with round-the-clock services operating on Fridays and Saturdays on five lines: the Jubilee, Victoria, and most of the Central, Northern and Piccadilly.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the new offer did ‘nothing to tackle the core issue which revolves around staff being at the beck and call of management to be hauled in during their free time to try and plug the staffing gaps which riddle the mayor’s Night Tube vanity project’.
He added: ‘The Night Tube plan has been botched from the off. The basics haven’t been done and those who will pay for this shambles will not only be our members but the London daily travelling public who cough up a fortune and who will find their safety and the reliability of the service compromised from 12 September onwards.’
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To night or not to night?
Aslef suggested that the 'sensible option would be to postpone the launch date to allow for an agreed way forward to be reached'.
Adding that 'once again, management are being completely inflexible and are refusing to negotiate on their offer, they are insisting that it must be accepted as it stands’.
The unions said they were available for further talks,
Steve Griffiths, chief operating officer, London Underground, said: 'After listening to the unions, we put forward an extremely fair revised offer, which addresses their concerns over work life balance and rewards our people for the hard work they do in keeping London working and growing.
'We remain available for talks at any time.'
The new offer includes:
An average 2% salary increase this year, and 1% or inflation (whatever is higher) for 2016 and 2017;
All staff on Night Tube lines or at stations serving them will be awarded £500 once the Night Tube is introduced on 12 September 2015, as promised in the original offer;
Drivers to receive an extra £200 per Night Tube shift worked during the period Night Tube is introduced;
In addition, station staff are being offered a £500 bonus for the successful completion of our modernisation of customer service by February 2016;
Assurances on work-life balance - with amended rosters and the new staff already hired for Night Tube, which will give drivers the same number of weekends off as they receive now.
LU has also reiterated its commitment to staff:
No-one will be asked to work more hours than they do today to run the Night Tube. After a short transitional period while the service is introduced, drivers will have the choice as to whether they work nights or not;
Everybody will remain entitled to two days off in seven; Rest and time off between shifts will always be in line with, or better than, statutory guidelines;
Annual leave for staff will remain significantly above the national average – 43 days for a train operator, 52 days for a member of our station staff;
Drivers on the night tube lines will have the option whether to choose to work the night tube shifts or not over the next year;
An above-inflation pay rise this year and guaranteed rises for the next two years, as well as a Night Tube bonus.
