The dispute over London bus drivers’ bonus payment has escalated as the union representing the drivers has threatened to add on any pay lost due to its members’ strike action.
As London’s bus drivers have planned for what would be the first London-wide bus strike for three decades on Friday June 22, the Unite union, which represents more than 20,000 bus drivers and other staff, has escalated the dispute over the drivers’ payment during the sporting events saying it would add on any pay lost as a result of strike action.
Bus drivers are the only transport workers in London who are denied bonus payment during the Olympic Games while most rail and underground staff in London will receive extra payments ranging from £500 a head at Network Rail to at least £900 on the Docklands Light Railway.
“Bus workers will be on the front line of London’s transport network during the Olympics but they have been treated with contempt by the bus companies and TfL [Transport for London]. They are claiming an award that every other London transport worker will receive”, said Peter Kavanagh, Unite’s regional secretary for London.
London’s bus drivers have announced that they would stage a strike on June 22 and would continue to stage walkouts up to and during the Olympic Games.
TfL’s managing director of surface transport, Leo Daniels, expressed great concerns over the bus drivers’ looming strike action accusing them of holding “the capital’s travelling public to ransom”.
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