Union strike ballot over Olympic payments

Transport union the RMT is to ballot for industrial action on Transport for London (TfL) over a ban on staff leave for the duration of the Olympics and has also declared a formal dispute with London Underground over a failure to reach an agreement on Olympics recognition and reward payments for all London Underground staff.

The RMT has told TfL that it is appalled that the employer intends to severely restrict annual leave over the Olympic period, including banning annual leave during the Games altogether in at least one department. The union says that the plan will make life impossible for many staff, for example those with school-age children. The union regards also TfL’s financial offer to its members as “totally inadequate”, claiming it consists solely of a £15 payment if a shift is changed.

The RMT is organising a ballot for industrial action of all members in departments of TfL for strike action and for action short of strike. The RMT’s executive has also considered the lack of progress from London Underground in reaching an agreement with the union over the Olympics recognition and reward issue and has agreed to formally declare a dispute with London Underground on this matter.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “RMT reiterates our stance that all grades of transport employees are entitled to a decent financial reward for their efforts transporting huge numbers of passengers during the Olympics and are entitled to take leave during the summer. Working conditions and important agreements should not and need not be attacked in order to facilitate Olympic running.”

The threat of strike action over the Olympics comes on top of the Unite union’s leader, Len McClusky, suggesting that wider strike action in other sectors could be timed to coincide with the Olympics. He told the Guardian that  “The attacks that are being launched on public sector workers at the moment are so deep and ideological that the idea the world should arrive in London and have these wonderful Olympic Games as though everything is nice and rosy in the garden is unthinkable,” he said.

“The unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting. If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that’s exactly one that we should be looking at.” He also said members of the public should support the campaign by engaging in “civil disobedience”.