London Underground staff have been offered a five per cent pay rise – but some activists say it is too low and are calling for strike action.
Transport for London made the “full and final” offer to all 16,000 Tube workers after an initial four per cent offer, which prompted the Unite union to threaten action, was rejected.
The improved one-year offer, which is for the current financial year and will be backdated to April, is above the 4.4 per cent deal imposed on the rest of TfL’s non-Tube workforce.
But it is below the CPI rate of inflation, which was 6.7 per cent in September and 8.7 per cent in April.
Aslef, which represents Tube drivers, is due to meet tomorrow [Wednesday] to discuss the offer. RMT, which represents station staff, will discuss the offer with its union representatives on Friday next week.
Last year Tube staff received 8.4 per cent under the last year of a four-year deal agreed by Mayor Sadiq Khan in 2019 that guaranteed an above-inflation rise.
Relations with TfL and the two main Tube unions, Aslef and the RMT, have improved in recent months and resulted in two strikes being called off at the 11th hour after deals were struck on jobs and pensions.
In July, action that would have caused a week of chaos on the Tube was called off after TfL agreed there would be no changes to its staff pension scheme until September 2026.
Earlier this month the RMT cancelled two planned walkouts after winning concessions on proposed cuts to station staffing – effectively safeguarding about 200 jobs.
Two weeks ago, Unite, one of the smaller Tube unions, warned TfL that it “must make a serious pay offer or face the prospect of industrial action” after talks at Acas resulted in the four per cent offer being tabled.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham described the four per cent offer as “pitiful” and warned that unless a “realistic” offer was made then union members would be “swiftly” balloted for strike action.
The RMT is currently re-balloting its members on possible strike action – a process it has to undertake regularly as strike mandates expire after six months.
But some prominent activists have called publicly for strikes to be called in response to the five per cent pay offer.
Daniel Randall, chair of the RMT’s Bakerloo line branch, said: “I’ll be arguing for rejection of the offer and a ballot for industrial action.”
He said the RMT wanted an increase above the RPI rate of inflation – which was 8.9 per cent in September – and a minimum £5,000 increase for the lowest paid staff.
Tube drivers earn about £60,000 but the most junior Tube station staff are paid just over £30,000 a year.
One union newsletter accused the RMT leadership of being “sluggish” and “chronically late out of the starting blocks” in making a pay demand.
It said there was now no chance of a strike ballot being held before January – as the Christmas post may delay responses – and urged union leaders to submit an early bid for a pay rise for 2024/25, alongside an improved offer for the current financial year.
Last week the TfL board was told that passenger numbers were up six per cent year on year and had reached 89 per cent of pre-pandemic levels – helping to create a £143m “operating surplus” so far this year, double the level targeted by its budget.
