TUBE UNION RMT announced today that staff on London Underground’s Victoria Line will stage a 24 hour strike from 21.30 hours on Monday 5th October to 21.29 hours on Tuesday 6th October in a dispute over the imposition of new rosters that significantly increase the workload on staff.

Since 2003 there has been an agreement in place on the Victoria Line that 5 rounder turns – where train operators undertake five return journeys in a day - would be minimized and they have effectively been eliminated from Monday to Friday up till now. This agreement was made in recognition of the non existent air cooling systems in the cabs and the fact that these turns are highly unpopular and were having a significant effect on morale.

Agreed practice up until now has been for staff to undertake four return journeys a day during the main working week.

On the opening of the new Brixton Depot management unilaterally ripped up this agreement declaring that air cooling was now acceptable on the trains, and rostered 5 rounder turns on weekdays. These turns were effectively imposed on RMT members and this, coupled with almost daily service disruption, has made life intolerable for our members on the line.

As a consequence, RMT members on the Victoria Line have voted overwhelmingly for strike action and will also be refusing to drive more than four round trips on the line from 00.01 hours on Wednesday 30th September while remaining available for alternative duties.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said:

“The imposition of these new rosters is all about management trying to carve up the staff working day to fit in with bad decisions that they have made – particularly the botched opening of the new depot in Brixton.

“This underhand attempt to extract an extra 20% from the working day out of our members has provoked this action on the Victoria Line and we would urge the management side to re-open serious negotiations to resolve this issue.”