Pay

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the well-attended meeting of our representatives on London Underground on Tuesday 4 October, at which a clear majority indicated that they wish the union to put LU’s offer to a referendum of members recommending acceptance.

Accordingly, we instruct the General Secretary to put in place a referendum ballot of all our members covered by this offer, with a recommendation to accept.

The RMT has not agreed to the recent pay offer from London Underground management. There have been widely repeated stories on the media claiming that all unions - RMT, TSSA, ASLEF and Unite have agreed the latest offer, however this is incorrect.

General Secretary Bob Crow said:

"Despite quotes reported to be attributed to LU in the press, and statements on the TFL/LU website, RMT wishes to make it clear that there has been no agreement on the issue of tube pay and that there has been no recommendation from RMT to accept the latest offer."

That we note the referendum result is as follows:-

Total votes cast 49
Number voting “Yes” 17
Number voting “No” 32
Spoilt Papers 0

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to inform the employer of our rejection of its below-inflation offer, to seek further talks, and to obtain a report from our Regional Organiser.

This matter to be placed back in front of us once the report is received and in the event of any developments.

London Transport Regional Council and relevant branches to be advised.

Update: London Underground has revised its offer to four years: 5% this year, RPI+0.5% (minimum 2%) for years 2, 3 and 4.

RMT workplace representatives will be discussing this at a meeting on Tuesday 4 October.You work hard, your employer makes money from your efforts, and you have bills to pay. So your union organises members to win better pay and working conditions. RMT aims to achieve:

• above-inflation pay rises - anything else is a pay cut in real terms, as your outgoings increase faster than your income;

From General Secretary Bob Crow

I write to advise you that despite London Underground announcing yesterday that a deal has been reached for Train Drivers during the Olympic Games period, RMT has not agreed to this deal; and as such your RMT Representatives’ registered a failure to agree at the Trains Functional Council meeting. I can confirm that RMT reject this deal.

Please find attached a 'Special Edition' of London Calling newsletter reporting on the 2011 Pay and 2012 Olympics rewards claims

In this edition

ASLEF/LU Olympics “deal” turns out to be a marathon for drivers.

To the shock of every driver on the combine the ASLEF/Management alliance has cooked up behind closed doors a so called ‘Olympics deal’. At the heart of this deal is the ripping up of our hard earned driving parameters that form our Train’s Framework Agreement. In essence, ASLEF/Management want to run a 21st Century railway with 19th Century terms and conditions.

Download the attached pdf to read the latest edition, or if you have a modern browser you can see it by clicking 'read more.'

Your pay rise should at least keep pace with - and preferably exceed - the rising cost of living.

The fact is that the cost of living regularly rises beyond the rate of inflation and living standards suffer as a result. Below is an example of increases:-

While our employers expect us to accept pay "rises" that are in some cases below inflation, and in others just fractionally above, here is what TfL, London Underground and Crossrail bosses are "earning" (Total remuneration excluding pension contributions, 2010/11) :

• Peter Hendy, Commissioner: £332,276
• Steve Allen, Managing Director, Finance: £268,982
• Mike Brown, Managing Director, London Underground: £285,230
• Howard Carter, General Counsel: £219,156
• Leon Daniels, Managing Director, Surface Transport: £97,000
  

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the agreement from Transport for London that staff recently transferred from London Underground will receive the same pay award as other TfL employees, receiving a rise of between 6% and 7.5%. We endorse our Regional Organiser’s recommendation that we accept this.

This offer underlines the inadequacy of other pay offers in companies either owned or contracted/franchised by TfL, such as London Underground and Alstom Metro Trains.

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to: