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Elizabeth Line: Workers to walk out later this month on London’s most popular route

By:

Transport Reporter

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The Elizabeth Line turns two years old today and it has been a rare success story in Britain's infrastructure scene.
The Elizabeth Line turns two years old today and it has been a rare success story in Britain's infrastructure scene.

Elizabeth Line workers will strike on Wednesday 24 May in what is the latest industrial action to hit London’s most popular line.

The action brought by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union announced today, is part of an ongoing pay dispute between operational staff, such as traffic and response managers, and TfL. 

This comes after a sustained period of industrial action on the UK rail and London transport network amid the cost of living and inflation crises.

It was recently announced there would be a series of rail strikes across the UK, including this coming weekend, which would disrupt the Eurovision Song Contest and FA Cup Final.

It is the second TSSA strike on the UK’s busiest line this year, with the last taking place on Thursday 12 January, the first industrial action on the line since it opened.

Workers were balloted in December, and voted in favour of the walk out.

The TSSA are arguing that staff on the Elizabeth Line are paid tens of thousands of pounds less than colleagues performing similar roles on other parts of the network, such as the DLR.

Action ‘short of a strike,’ which the union says will consist of an overtime ban and ‘removal of good will,’ will also take place from Saturday 27 May to Sunday 4 June.

This could include workers operating the line on contracted hours and taking all available breaks, with no out-of-hours communications.

Mel Taylor, TSSA’s organising director said, “we’ve been in talks with management for almost a year now, yet the majority of our members have been offered an uplift of just over 1% to make up for the huge pay differentials.”

“Elizabeth Line staff work weekends, nights and even Christmas Day, operating the world’s only fully digital railway, but many earn less than two thirds of the salary paid to other TfL staff in similar roles. Our members don’t want to have to take strike action, but they’ve had enough.”

Since launching fully a year ago, the Elizabeth Line has become the capital’s most used and reliable route, with one in six journeys on Britain’s transport network made on, 62m, between October and December 2022.

TfL was contacted for comment.