TfL staff who kept services open during strike handed £25 bonus
TRANSPORT for London staff who volunteered to help at stations during last month’s Tube strike have been given a £25 bonus, in a move derided as “gesture politics” by one of the trade unions.
Hundreds of workers will be handed high street vouchers to recognise their efforts “over and above their day jobs”, said London Underground chief operating officer Phil Hufton.
Many of these staff were trained to work on the transport network during the Olympics but were asked to step in to help keep services running during the 48-hour strike.
TfL said it managed to run 35 to 40 per cent of planned services during the walkout.
“This [is] yet another example of Boris’s gesture politics,” said Manuel Cortes, TSSA general secretary. “Instead of wasting public money on grandstanding gimmicks, he would be better of focusing on how he caused the dispute in the first place, namely his reckless plan to close all 260 Tube ticket offices.”
The TSSA and RMT unions called off a second planned walkout after agreeing to sit down with TfL for two months of talks over the planned closures, which will result in 750 net job losses.
TfL has said it will make the cuts without resorting to compulsory redundancies.