Revealed: TfL Top Bosses Splash The Cash ... On Themselves

A recent article by Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard reveals some interesting facts about how much TfL/LUL bosses spend on themselves.

These figures provide some pointers as to how the companies could save money instead of by sacking staff. They also back up RMT's demand that TfL and LUL should "open the books". If the trade unions and the public had unrestrained access to the companies' financial information, we believe that we could find alternative savings to job cuts, could undermine management's spurious case for these cuts, and could make the case for decent public funding to a public transport service.

For example:

  • 123 TfL managers earned more than £100,000 each in 2007/8. By contrast, the Treasury had just 15 six-figure earners. Only 3 of these posts are among the 1,000 or so jobs to be cut.
  • The top TfL earner, probably former Transport Commissioner Bob Kiley, made £540,000.
  • TfL Commissioner Peter Hendy made between £425,000 and £450,000.
  • The average pay, benefits and bonuses of TfL's top management last year was £140,000.
  • Fifteen TfL managers, including the director of marketing, earned more than the Prime Minister.
  • Of the 108 managers on salaries over £100k whose job descriptions Gilligan saw, only 16 are involved in operating train and bus services.
  • 46 of the most highly-paid officials are administrators or policy officers, 36 are accountants, 7 are lawyers, 3 are PRs.
  • At least three managers were paid £100k+ salaries for running projects that no loner exist - the West London Tram project, cancelled in August 2007; the Thames Gateway Bridge, cancelled last November; and the "e-money project", cancelled in May 2006.
  • TfL's London Rail division - which is responsible for the 'strategic direction' of the DLR, London Overground and the former East London line, but does not actually run them - employs only 194 staff, but has 9 top managers on salaries over £100,000, including a human resources director earning up to £125,000 a year and a managing director on up to £225,000.