Tube chiefs in pay deal

Tube chiefs are today preparing a new pay offer for 3,000 train drivers in an effort to avert the two 48-hour strikes - the first beginning at noon tomorrow week.

The offer - amounting to an extra 3.4 per cent - could also include possible jobsharing and changes to the drivers' shift arrangements. London Underground is also promising a "family-friendly" deal where, as much as possible, shift arrangements are made to suit the employee's home life - for instance, collecting children from school.

The long-running dispute is over pay parity. The drivers of passenger trains, who earn £29,000 a year, are claiming an extra £1,600 to bring them closer to the engineering train operates on a higher rate.

LU says the claim amounts to an extra 5.7 per cent on top of the across-the-board four per cent paid to all employees, including drivers, last year.

As a way out of the deadlock, LU has proposed two increments of 1.7 per cent, the first to be paid from April on a "no-strings" basis, with the second 1.7 per cent in the wage packets from October.

But that will be conditional on a productivity deal. LU says it can afford to improve the pay offer if the deal can be made self-financing.

Negotiators from LU and the two main unions, Aslef and the RMT, have been working on possible productivity deals. Now LU is drawing up a formal offer, which will be put to the unions in the next day or two.

Slight changes to the drivers' shifts will give LU a much greater flexibility on the number of trains available and cut down on the wages bill - which means the money saved can be put towards the new pay offer.

Mike Brown, LU's director of customer services, said: "We remain committed to finding a resolution to the issue of driver pay which is acceptable to LU, our drivers and the unions. We hope that the trades unions will see these discussions through."

The dispute came to a head last October when a series of strikes was called off at the last moment. Both sides thought they had reached a deal. Within hours, however, that agreement was in tatters. The unions said LU had agreed to pay the increase in stages. LU said it had agreed only to hold further discussions about "anomalies" in the drivers' pay structure.

Bob Crow, the new RMT leader, said LU had "failed to keep its side of the bargain".

The second strike is due to begin at noon on Tuesday 26 March. The timing of the strikes mean that the Tube network will be seriously disrupted over three days, and London businesses will lose millions of pounds as staff arrive late or not at all.

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