TfL's Internal Staff Newsletter For June 2014:
Official statistics show that prices are still rising more than wages, and the Bank of England is now talking about interest rate rises in the near future. Your cost of living is going up, yet TfL is proposing to freeze your wages. This is a wage freeze that may last for 5 years or more, with any future rises based upon arbitrary ‘market comparisons’.
As a consequence of these proposals, the value of your pension will decline, so you will suffer not just now but in the future.
There are already massive inequalities in pay between staff doing the same job; these proposals will make them worse over time. This comes at a time when TfL has made little or no progress in improving their performance on equality and diversity of staff in senior grades over the last ten years.
To make matters worse, in order to qualify for a non-pensionable bonus you will need to demonstrate that you have met the TfL Behaviours; highly subjective and potentially discriminatory measures which lead the way for favouritism and cronyism to prevail.
But is not just the content of TfL’s Pay for Performance that is unjust and unreasonable. The manner in which TfL has sought to impose these proposals without meaningful consultation with staff unions further demonstrates their contempt for their hardworking staff.
TfL bosses have consistently refused to go to ACAS to seek resolution to this dispute. HR Director, Tricia Riley, has repeatedly said she is willing to negotiate with the unions, yet she has failed to come to the table even once, instead sending others to deliver the message that TfL will not talk about the fundamental aspects of their proposals.
TfL staff have demonstrated their opposition to Pay for Performance with strike action and action short of strike. We will soon be asking members to lobby individual members of the TfL Board of Directors and are building links with press, political and community allies.
Our dispute is escalating. PCS members in TfL are now balloting for industrial action, and support for the dispute is growing stronger both inside and outside of TfL.
No Pay for Performance talks, No P&D talk!
It is vital that we keep up the pressure on TfL; action short of strike is really beginning to bite, particularly non-participation in the P&D Process.
Managers are now trying to get around this non- participation by asking to staff to complete their P&D on the old form or on blank paper.
It is important to remember that any information that you provide – in whatever format - will be used by TfL to implement the new P&D scheme.
It is therefore vital that we do not participate in the P&D process in any way at all. For guidance go to: http://tflunionstogether.org/faq/#short
The solution to this dispute is straightforward. TfL management need to come to the table and engage in meaningful consultation and negotiation; they need to work WITH staff not AGAINST them.
Together we send that message loud & clear. Together we can make them listen.
TSSA, RMT and Unite staged a second day of strike action against TfL’s plans to freeze our pay and slash our pensions. This time the turnout was bigger, better and stronger, with more staff than ever taking action and picket lines at 11 of TfL’s major workplaces and several TICs closed.
Support for our campaign is growing both outside and within TfL, with union membership still on the rise.
If you are not a union member, now is the time to join. Remember, together we are stronger.
Mayor to be questioned about TfL Pay for Performance:
Members of the London Assembly are to question Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, about TfL’s plans to freeze pay and cut pensions of hard working staff, whilst increasing the number of highly paid senior post-holders.
As head of the TfL Board of Directors, Johnson has ultimate responsibility for – and the power to influence – TfL policy and practises. Instead of wasting millions of pounds on his personal vanity projects such as the Routemaster buses and the seldom-used cable cars, many of London’s elected AMs believe that TfL should be recognising the committed TfL staff who keep London moving.
Ten times per year the Mayor is required to attend Mayor’s Question Time to answer to AMs and to Londoners.
The next MQT takes place on Wednesday, 2 July at City Hall on the South Bank, and TfL’s pay for performance proposals will feature high on the agenda.
If you have any questions that you would like our supporters in the London Assembly to put to Boris Johnson, then email them by Friday, 27 June to: taylorm@tssa.org.uk.
The Mayor’s answers to questions are published on line and we will be sharing them with
union members as soon as they are made available.
TfL staff and all members of the
Hands off our pay & pensions
public are entitled to attend and view Mayor’s Question Time.
