Bus services in west London are expected to be disrupted this week as hundreds of workers walk out in a dispute over pay and conditions.
More than 350 west London bus drivers and engineers will on Friday begin six days of strike action that will take place until just before Christmas, union Unite has announced.
The workers - who are employed by London Transit, which is owned by French-company RATP - are striking after they rejected a 6.8% pay offer.
They will first walk out on Friday (November 10), followed by a second strike day on Monday (November 13).
The action will spell more misery for Londoners in a week that has seen DLR services suspended for two successive days as members of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union walk out in a separate dispute over pay.
The London Transit bus workers are then due to stage four more days of strike action next month, on December 1, 4, 22 and 23.
The workers are based at the Westbourne Park Garage, and the strikes will impact the 13, 23, 28, 218, 295, 414, 452 and N28 routes.
Unite warned the industrial action "will escalate if the dispute is not resolved".
The union branded the 6.8 per cent pay offer its members had reportedly been offered was "a significant real terms pay cut as the real rate of inflation, RPI, stood at 11.4 per cent when the pay increase was supposed to be applied in April".
It added that the dispute is also over "the company's attempt to reduce terms and conditions, including removing a longstanding £500 meal relief payment and attacking arrangements for a how workers take days off in lieu".
"Increasing bad feeling at the company is the fact that it takes workers seven years to reach the full rate of pay, even though at most other bus companies it only takes three years of service," the Unite statement continued.
The union's general secretary Sharon Graham said: “RATP is a massive multinational company. It can absolutely afford to table an acceptable pay increase and does not to need to attack workers’ terms and conditions.
“Unite is totally focused on defending and improving our members’ jobs, pay and conditions. The workers at RATP have their union’s total backing during these strikes.”
Unite regional officer Michelle Braveboy said: “Strike action will inevitably cause disruption to passengers but this is entirely the fault of London Transit and RATP’s management. They have had every opportunity to resolve this dispute but have failed to do so.”
A spokesperson for London Transit said the firm was "disappointed" by the decision to strike, describing the pay offer as "competitive and fair".
“We are disappointed at the ballot result and the decision to proceed with industrial action," said the spokesperson. "Strikes will cause inconvenience to the public and further loss of earnings for our hard-working employees.
"We have made a competitive and fair offer, worth 8.3 per cent in total, aligned to our commitment to protect drivers and engineers from inflation and reward their efforts. We have also reviewed the Union’s demands with regard to terms and conditions and have put forward proposals we believe should be satisfactory to all parties.
"While union representatives declined our most recent invitation to continue discussions on this year’s pay round, we remain ready to engage at any point. We very much hope that they will meet us and that strikes can be averted."
