Tube strike 2015: Drivers will strike over Night Tube after turning down this pay deal from TfL
A 24-hour strike by Tube drivers planned for Wednesday is expected to go ahead, causing disruption to millions of Londoners, after a "final" pay offer was turned down.
A new "final" offer of a two per cent pay rise this year, £2,000 for drivers and £500 for other staff working on the Night Tube services, was put forward by Tube bosses yesterday.
TfL has been in last-ditch talks with four unions – RMT, Aslef, TSSA and Unite – to try and come to a deal that will prevent 20,000 drivers from striking.
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The unions were given until 6.30pm on Monday evening to respond to the offer.
Aslef, which represents the majority of drivers, said the strike will definitely go ahead as they were not given enough time to consider the offer.
RMT called the new offer "divisive and unacceptable" and that a meeting of its executive would take place on Tuesday morning, where a recommendation will be made to reject the offer.
"While a small minority of staff are being offered a non-consolidated one-off lump sum the remainder of staff are ignored and the key issues of work/life balance and the personal health and safety concerns are side lined," said RMT boss Mick Cash.
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"The deal as it stands is financed off the back of the proposed axing of over 800 safety-critical station jobs and is deliberately constructed to play individuals off against each other in the most cynical fashion. "
In a letter to staff, London Underground chief operating officer Steve Griffiths said of the offer:
"… the offer is conditional upon the unions suspending all industrial action, committing to working with us to deliver [the] Night Tube and recommending this offer to you. I have asked the unions to let me have their response by 6.30pm today. I have set this deadline so that if industrial action is called off we can plan to provide the best possible service to our customers this week. Should the industrial action go ahead, our revenue will be affected and therefore the offer will no longer be viable. It is also unlikely that we will meet our LCH targets and that will impact on the bonus payment.
I have made this offer, as I firmly believe that providing you with certainty on your pay is the right thing to do. In addition, I know that many of you are keen to understand what the introduction of Night Tube means to your work life balance and to that end my intention is to share proposed rosters with you as soon as is practicable. I want to remind you of the assurances I made last week."
The strike is scheduled to run from 6.30pm on 8 July until 6.30pm on 9 July, bringing travel chaos to the capital.
Drivers are unhappy at the prospect of working through the night when the 24-hour tube service is introduced in September.
Cash said last week: "The management, in a mad dash to bulldoze through the night running stunt, have smashed apart long-term agreements and have resorted to trying to bully staff into accepting roster changes at a local level," calling the Night Tube plans a "vanity project" of Boris Johnson.