London Underground staff to walkout over pay

There will be rolling strike action across the London Underground (LU) beginning on Friday 5 September for seven days, the RMT union has announced.

The union claimed transport bosses refused to engage with them over pay, fatigue management, extreme shift patterns and a reduction in the working week.

RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “Fatigue and extreme shift rotations are serious issues impacting on our members health and wellbeing- all of which have not been adequately addressed for years by LU management.”

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson said: “We urge the RMT to put our fair, affordable pay offer to their members and to continue to engage with us.”

On Thursday, RMT accused management of a “dismissive approach”, adding this had “fuelled widespread anger and distrust” among the workforce.

Staff at different grades will be taking industrial action at different times as part of rolling strike action, it said.

TfL’s spokesperson said: “We regularly meet with our trade unions to discuss any concerns that they may have, and we recently met with the RMT to discuss some specific points.

“We are committed to ensuring our colleagues are treated fairly and, as well as offering a 3.4% pay increase in our ongoing pay discussions, we have made progress on a number of commitments we have made previously.

“We welcome further engagement with our unions about fatigue and rostering across London Underground, but a reduction in the contractual 35-hour working week is neither practical nor affordable.”

In a separate dispute over pay and conditions, workers on the Docklands Light Railway will also be striking during this period in the week beginning 7 September.

Mr Dempsey added: “RMT will continue to engage LU management with a view to seeking a revised offer in order to reach a negotiated settlement.”

Planned strike action from union members includes engineers, station staff and train operators staging walkouts from midnight on 8 September until 9 September and again after midnight on 10 September.

Signallers, service control and Emergency Response Union (ERU) members will strike on 9 September and again, without ERU members, on 11 September.

Track access controllers, LU control centre staff, power/control teams and ERU members will also strike on 7 September.

Ruslip depot operational managers will strike from from 18:00 BST on 5 September to 17:59 on 6 September over pay.

The last RMT strike on the London Underground was in November 2024.