{"id":27861,"date":"2021-02-19T14:57:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T14:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=27861"},"modified":"2021-02-19T14:57:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T14:57:52","slug":"a-convenient-smokescreen-for-pay-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=27861","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098A convenient smokescreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for pay cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

London bus passengers will face serious disruption as Unite confirmed today (February 19) that 2,200 bus drivers employed by RATP will strike next week over a sustained attack on their pay packets.<\/p>\n

Unite accused the French-owned RATP of using the pandemic as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a convenient smokescreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to attempt to implement pay policies that could see some of their drivers lose up to \u00c2\u01412,500-a-year.<\/p>\n

RATP operates three subsidiaries across the London bus network: London United, London Sovereign and Quality Line.<\/p>\n

Workers at London United, which provides bus services in south and west London will take strike action on\u00c2\u00a0Monday 22 February, Tuesday 23 February and Wednesday 24 February. Due to the proposed contracts drivers face wage cuts of \u00c2\u01412,500 which will reduce wages to 2015 levels.<\/p>\n

Workers at Quality Line, based at its depot in Epsom, Surrey, will take strike action on\u00c2\u00a0Monday 22 February\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Tuesday 23 February\u00c2\u00a0in\u00c2\u00a0a dispute over pay. The drivers earn \u00c2\u01412.50 an hour less than drivers at RATP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s other subsidiaries. The workers have been offered a derisory pay offer of 0.5 per cent (seven pence an hour).<\/p>\n

Unite members at London Sovereign, who operate services in north west London,\u00c2\u00a0will take strike action on\u00c2\u00a0Monday 22 February\u00c2\u00a0in a pay dispute. The workers have been offered a pay increase of just 0.75 per cent, which is well below what has been offered by other operators. A further strike date has been announced for Wednesday 3 March.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Serious disruption\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe strike action planned for next week will go ahead at RATP, bringing serious disruption to services in the south, west and north of London,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite regional officer Michelle Braveboy.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRATP remains hell-bent on using the pandemic as a convenient smokescreen to attack key worker terms and conditions which, if implemented, will see drivers at London United lose up to \u00c2\u01412,500-a-year, when the cost of living in the capital is soaring.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese are not temporary changes, but permanent ones that will see\u00c2\u00a0members suffer a substantial financial loss. The dispute regarding the zero contract hours has also not been resolved.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMembers at London Sovereign are angry at the derisory offer and the strength of feeling is the same for those at\u00c2\u00a0Quality Line who are still some of the lowest paid drivers on Transport for London (TFL) routes. The bosses should have used this opportunity to address the disparity in pay for all drivers at the Epsom garage.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Braveboy continued,\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members have no option other than to fight back against these\u00c2\u00a0attacks, while\u00c2\u00a0recognising the disruption caused.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are reluctant to take strike action at a time of national emergency, but feel they have been pushed against the wall by hardline directors.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEven at this late stage, RATP has the opportunity to avert the strikes by\u00c2\u00a0withdrawing the threat to terms and conditions, continuing the negotiations and making a fair offer to our members,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she concluded.<\/p>\n

By Shaun Noble <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London bus passengers will face serious disruption as Unite confirmed today (February 19) that 2,200 bus drivers employed by RATP will strike next week over a sustained attack on their pay packets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[176,211,1089,964],"wps_subtitle":"Bus bosses accused of using pandemic for pay cuts, as 2,200 drivers set to strike","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27863,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27861\/revisions\/27863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}