Tube staff win Olympic bonus of up to £1,000
LONDON Underground has dipped into its coffers to avert strike action on the Tube during the Olympic Games.
After months of wrangling, the RMT union said yesterday it has agreed a deal with LU that offers staff up to £850 and drivers as much as £1,000 in extra payments for working during the Games.
On top of the bonus, around 10,000 staff will not be required to work outside their normal working hours and conditions.
But the RMT continues to lobby LU to hold a full-scale mock emergency evacuation to test plans ahead of the Olympics, and remains critical of the use of volunteers to help at stations. Around 3m extra journeys are expected to be made for each day of the event.
Bus drivers could still mount disruptive strikes during the Games, after the Unite union rejected the “totally unacceptable” offer of a £500 bonus.
Meanwhile, new figures showed that crime on the Tube and the Docklands Light Railway fell 10.1 per cent last year to just over 12,000, though drug and sexual offences both rose.
On London’s buses, the number of crimes reported fell 9.1 per cent to 21,724 – the lowest level in eight years.