So, with Night Tube in the long grass, LUL has sent us a repackaged offer on pay. Here are a few reasons why it is rubbish:
- Its closeness to the RPI increase means it contains very little increase in real terms.
- Despite the flat-rate element meaning it is a higher percentage rise for lower-paid grades in the first year (only), those lower-paid grades are still left struggling given the astronomical cost of living in London.
- National Insurance rules change in April, with us paying 1% more (and the employer paying less). So that's the pay rise wiped out, making it a pay cut in real terms.
- A four-year deal means no more progress in pay or working conditions - for example, any reduction in working hours - for the full four years.
- And a four-year deal also means four years of pay peace for the company, clearing their desks for yet more attacks on staffing levels, working conditions and pensions.
- Managers are giving themselves far bigger pay rises than the one they are offering us.
- Meanwhile, our claim for a 32-hour, 4-day week is dismissed yet again. And the B-plan of compressing hours means excessively long shifts and undermining agreements by letting individuals opt to alter them.
- "Long term commitment to improving work life balance" is waffle - we know from years of bitter experience that "commitments" that contain no detail and no actual commitments never come to anything.
While the company says that this is a 'final offer', it is only the final offer if we let it be! If we are prepared to fight for more, and better, it won't be so final after all.
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