Pay

As London Underground and Transport for London prepare to tell us that they can not afford a decent pay rise for workers, what with the economic crisis 'n'all, let's look at how much they pay their top bosses ...

The figures for the most recent completed financial year (2007/08) revealed that ...

• Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy was paid more than £540,000: a salary of £334,720 plus a bonus of £115,200 and other benefits.
• Tim O'Toole, Managing Director of London Underground, £283,254 and a bonus of £73,115.

Management will try to convince us that we should accept a low pay rise because of the economic crisis. In truth, the crisis makes it even more important that we get a decent rise. Here's why ...

1. We did not cause the economic crisis, so we should not have to pay for it. We and other workers create the wealth in society. If bankers gamble some of that wealth away, that is not our fault.

2. Our bills have gone up and are due to go up even more.

We need a decent pay rise to meet the rising bills that we have to pay. Here are some facts and figures, with sources in [square brackets]:

LUL Management seems to have got themselves in a twist over the 2009 pay.

RMT have demanded a substantial one year pay rise and other benefits, including a ‘floor’ salary of £26,000. Heating and food bills have gone right up over the last year and Underground passenger numbers are higher than ever.

Signallers on the Waterloo and City are celebrating a victory today, LU refused to recognise the unique controller duties they performed and classified them as the lowest grade signal operator.

After months of unrest LUL have caved in and agreed to regrade the staff at Waterloo to Service Controller Waterloo and City, increase their pay to 40k (The 40k figure is based on the fact the control room staff will not work night duties or Sundays) and back date the pay claim to the 1st April 2008.

From Circular No. IR 283, November 27 2008

Dear Colleagues,

RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2009:

• LONDON UNDERGROUND LTD
• EDF ENERGY POWERLINK
• METRONET (BCV AND SSL)
• TfL
• ALSTOM METRO TRAINS

I write to confirm that a common claim for improvements to rates of pay and conditions of service in 2009 was formally lodged with all of the above employers last week. The basis of the claim is as follows:

Below is a question-and-answer briefing produced by LUL management to explain pay rates for working on New Year's Eve.

LUL produced this Q&A a year ago, and the only thing that has changed since then is that there are no longer payments for Operational Duty Managers.

=====

These Q& A’s must be used in conjunction with the current Pay Arrangements for New Years Eve Payments.

RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2009:

LONDON UNDERGROUND LTD EDF ENERGY POWERLINK METRONET (BCV AND SSL) TfL ALSTOM METRO TRAINS

I write to confirm that a common claim for improvements to rates of pay and conditions of service in 2009 was formally lodged with all of the above employers last week. The basis of the claim is as follows:

• A substantial increase in rates of pay for all grades and additional protection for the lowest paid grades in the form of a minimum salary of £26,000
• Improved travel facilities for non-safeguarded employees

From the Bakerloo branch newsletter

Capitalism is in crisis: world markets collapse, banks are part nationalised and the government bails out big business to the tune of billions of pounds. Naturally the talk in the mess room is "what's happening with the pay negotiations?"

It is entirely rational that workers on the tube want to safeguard our livelihood during this time. Many workers will be mortgaged up to the eyeballs and seeing their homes sink into negative equity on a daily basis.

But will London's tube workers be treated as favourably as London's bankers?

by Vaughan Thomas, RMT Trains Council

National and local media often accuse Tube drivers of being overpaid and under worked. Whenever we have a dispute they trot out the old refrain that a trained monkey could do our job, and it’s about time that the Mayor took on the unions! Flogging’s too good for the likes of us!

They compare us to underpaid workers in the emergency services: the nurses, paramedics and firefighters and say we should be grateful for what we’ve got. How dare we ask for more!