Commuters speak to staff members as barriers block the entrance to Elizabeth Line at Paddington station
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Unions who called the first strike on the Elizabeth line have urged Sadiq Khan to intervene to prevent an “entirely avoidable” pay dispute escalating into further walkouts.
Members of the TSSA, Prospect and RMT unions on Thursday forced a day-long closure of the central section of the £20bn line in a bid to secure a pay rise and safeguard pensions.
It is the first time that the line, which has become the busiest railway in the country since being opened by the Queen last May, has been hit by directly impacted by a strike.
More than 600,000 journeys a day are normally made on the line, half in the central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood.
Services on its western and eastern branches - between Paddington, Heathrow, Reading and Maidenhead, and between Liverpool Street and Shenfield – were running but at reduced frequencies.
There will be a knock-on impact on Friday morning, with no services between Abbey Wood and Paddington until 7.30am, and a “good service” not expected before 9am. Further disruption could be caused by a “work to rule” and overtime ban until the end of February.
Line managers walked out after being unable to secure an improved pay offer from the Transport for London subsidiary, Rail for London Infrastructure (RfLI), that runs the Elizabeth line.
The TSSA wrote to the mayor on Thursday, urging him, as TfL chair, to “commit to negotiating a fair pay deal for staff which addresses pay inequalities”.
It says the safety-critical staff are paid up to £30,000 less than similarly skilled workers employed by other Elizabeth line subcontractors.
TSSA organiser Mel Taylor said: “This strike was entirely avoidable. RfLI stalled pay talks for months and when talks did start, they refused to negotiate. It has taken strike action to get bosses to even talking seriously, but even then only at the last minute, literally over the last couple of days.
“The employers here have to get serious about addressing the pay inequality across TfL. These Elizabeth Line workers are paid thousands of pounds less than colleagues doing equivalent work across London’s transport network, even on the very same line. It’s basic unfairness. Without a commitment to negotiate a fair pay deal and address pay inequalities, further strikes are on the cards.”
Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said: “Colleagues on London Underground and London Overground have had pay increases in excess of eight per cent and six per cent respectively in 2022 and our members have been offered four per cent. That’s just not acceptable.”
TfL said it had offered a “fair” two-year pay deal of a four per cent pay increase for last year and 4.4 per cent increase this year.
The GLA Conservatives said Mr Khan should “stand up to the unions”. Transport spokesman Nick Rogers said: “While this may be the first Elizabeth Line strike, it is nearly the 100th strike on London’s transport network since Sadiq Khan took office, proving once again that his promise of ‘zero strikes’ was just hot air.”
Howard Smith, TfL’s director of the Elizabeth line, said: “These strikes will have a detrimental effect during a time where we are encouraging customers back on to trains into central London, in which the Elizabeth line has played a leading role.”
A TfL spokesman said there were six trains per hour on the western section, split between Reading, Maidenhead and Heathrow Terminal 4, and eight per hour in the eastern section, with two or three more during peak hours. This placed extra demand on the Central line at Stratford, where many passengers heading into central London switched onto the Tube.
