RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2011 – LONDON UNDERGROUND

From RMT General Secretary Bob Crow.

I write to advise you that management have tabled an improved offer for the 2011 pay award and this is detailed below for your information: -

Year 1

• A 4.75% increase in basic rates of pay backdated to April 2011

Years 2 to 5

• A February RPI plus 0.25% for each year (There will be a a minimum of 0.25%)

Career breaks

LU considered a claim that 19 train operator staff who are currently on career breaks of longer than 6 months and who have complied fully with the terms of their career breaks, be allowed to return to LU. LU are prepared to agree to this providing it is to a vacant role of train operator at a location of London Underground's choosing. This will be managed in accordance with clause 6.8 of the Train Operator Resourcing Agreement December 2010. This right will remain open until the end of 2011, after which it will close.

Working on a Bank Holiday

If a Train Operator wishes to work on a Bank Holiday when they have been booked on leave then, with management agreement, they may work their rostered hours. This only applies to those staff would have otherwise been expected to work normally, but have instead been required to take Leave because it is a Bank Holiday. These staff would have the option to request that they be permitted to work for their rostered shift, providing their manager is able to ensure that productive work will be found for them to perform. In the event that many staff seek to work on a given Bank Holiday at a given location, the selection of who would work that particular bank holiday at that location would be dealt with at TFC if the matter could not be resolved at a local level. LU are also prepared to look at how this might work in other operational areas, like APD and Stations.

Offer Rejected

Having considered this offer your General Grades Committee has made the following decision : -

“We reject the latest pay offer from London Underground. The fractional increase in the offer for this year is to only 4.75% which is still significantly below inflation, as the RPI figure for February was only 5.5%. Our Members are experiencing significant increases in their costs of living, the latest being the outrageous price rises announced by British Gas.

Moreover, LU’s offer is for a five-year settlement which is too long duration, especially when the offer for years 2 to 5 is only a small fraction above RPI. This would leave London Underground staff vulnerable to real-terms pay cuts in years when RPI under-estimates the real rise in living costs, as it often does and would leave us unable to claim for further increases until 2016.

Adding insult to injury, LU has dismissed out-of hand our claim for a minimum flat-rate pay increase, which would benefit lower paid grades. It has also dismissed our claim for a reduction in working hours and offered little or nothing on our other claims for improved conditions.

We firmly believe that a united stance from all LU trade unions can win a significantly better offer than this and that separate talks for different grades risk sowing division to the detriment of all grades. We therefore welcome the unity with TSSA and Unite that we have achieved so far and strongly urge ASLEF to join this united approach. We instruct the General Secretary to write to ASLEF accordingly.

We also instruct the General Secretary to write to all LU members outlining our stance and to ensure that members are given information and kept informed of developments promptly.”

I trust this keeps you informed of the situation and once further negotiations have taken place I shall write to you again with full details.