TFL & LONDON UNDERGROUND

SPECIAL BULLETIN
OCTOBER 2021

DEFEND YOUR PENSION

NO JOB CUTS
DEFEND WORKING CONDITIONS

WE CAN AND MUST WIN THIS BATTLE

The government, TfL and London Underground workers have created billions in profits for London’s
consider EVERYTHING that makes our job bearable big businesses over the past decade and more. Even
and worthwhile as up for grabs. Pensions, job security, if ridership is still returning to the pre-pandemic level,
pay rises and your framework agreements are all we create massive value for the economy. Unless we
threatened... If we don’t stop them! are given a guarantee of no detriment to jobs, pay,
Last year we were heroes, now we’re just a cost pensions and conditions we will ballot members for
on an accountant’s balance sheet. strike action.
Management are going to try and con us into This is a fight we can and must win. If we
believing that if we cooperate with attacks on jobs, allow the Mayor and the government to smash up
pay, pensions and conditions they will be in a better our framework agreements and slash jobs we will pay
position to negotiate with the government for funding. for it every day that we come to work. Attacks on our
Let’s be clear: RMT does not accept attacks on our pensions mean we will continue to pay in retirement.
members whether they come from TfL, the Mayor or the Every RMT member can help build support
government. We will fight to defend ourselves. for our fight against TfL and government cuts. Talk to
TfL and the government are cynically using your workmates, circulate RMT info to them. Attend
the Covid pandemic to argue that they cannot afford your RMT branch and follow the latest updates on
to maintain jobs, pay, pensions and conditions. But TfL rmtlondoncalling.org.uk/fundtfl
 LU STATION & REVENUE GRADES
STATIONS JOBS AND FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT IN BOSSES’ SIGHTS

Girl walking across the tracks at Latimer Road after it was left
unstaffed by Fit for the Future job cuts

Despite the lack of detailed proposals, it is fast balance.

becoming clear how management intends to move Management speak of “benchmarking” with other Train
forward on LU stations. Management is looking at Operating Companies, looking enviously at low-paying
minimum numbers and staffing in non-section 12 areas. rail operators, whose staff get 24 or 48 hours notice of
RMT believes that management plans could be for duties. Management also made clear their belief that
another massive cut in station staff. the Attendance at Work policy (AAW) is “too generous”.
LUL’s Director of Customer Operations told The vast majority of stations already open and
union reps, at Company Council on 12 August, that close on minimum numbers, so any reduction in staffing
“ticket hall staffing levels” haven’t been reviewed would lead to rosters overwhelmingly composed of
in “absolutely ages” – as if Fit for the Future never extreme turns, a trend that began with OSP (Operational

TRAINS WITHOUT DRIVERS

happened. He quoted increased contactless usage to Strategy Programme) in 2010/11 and accelerated with
say staff numbers should be driven down, but in the Fit for the Future in 2016. Sickness and ill health are
next breath bemoaned revenue lost from fare evasion! part of life but rotating days and nights and extreme
According to management, LU needs turns are known to increase levels of sickness and

AND DRIVERS WITHOUT RIGHTS! more “flexibility” and “efficiency”, and “the present
agreements are a barrier to this”. Translated, this means:
the Framework Agreement has to go. The Framework,
whilst far from perfect, at least gives partial structure to
long-term ill-health. Add to that an increase in assaults
on staff and all management want to do is make more
job cuts and introduce a less “generous” Attendance at
Work policy. If we allow this to happen our stations will
shift patterns and allows some semblance of work/life become much worse places to work.
RMT is “London Underground’s best organised and Night Tube grade and forcing TO21 drivers to work
most militant trade union.” These are the words of through the night in passenger service. This has created
Oliver Gill, the Chief Business Correspondent at The
Telegraph, in an article about Prime Minister Johnson’s
plans for the Tube.
huge benefits for the company and equally huge
disbenefits for the drivers.
Management has a shopping list of “flexibility”
LU FLEET MAINTENANCE
The Telegraph has long been regarded as the – an innocent sounding word with very sinister Unfilled vacancies and use of agencies is preparation for job cuts
“house journal” of the Tory Party, and when they are connotations.
briefed that Johnson wants a “driverless” underground Being flexible could mean extending The recent announcement regarding TfL’s need to announced that they will not be filling vacancies. This
we must take the threat seriously. parameters, working out of more than one depot, save £900 million this year, as part of the funding deal all adds at up to more work and pressure on the staff
The article went on to say that Johnson has a changing shifts at short notice, overtime and rest day with the government means Fleet management have to deliver well maintained trains safely for the traveling
dream of “neutering the powerful RMT union” because working, changing rest days at short notice – the list already started to look at introducing a more casualised public to use.
it is recognised that the RMT is the only union with goes on. But they also want to save money by changing workforce by means of 350+ contractors or staff on But it won’t stop there, as a union we haven’t
the political will and industrial muscle to stop the the sick pay provisions, changing the Attendance at short term contracts. Management has also imposed been given the details but are sure LU are looking at:
wholescale destruction of our terms and conditions. Work and Discipline policies, reducing the size of pools Automatic Train Movements in areas of the network · Further extending maintenance across all fleets
Whether Johnson achieves driverless trains and the number of rostered spare turns. where various staff are walking about the track to carry · Wholesale changes to long established rosters and
is a matter of conjecture, but what is clear is that the Johnson and LUL believe they are on the front out their work. This is all part of the cuts agenda. agreements over leave and working practices
financial restraints he is placing on TfL are aimed at foot – it is up to us to prove them wrong. They can be Talk of an increase in e-learning will lead to an · Outsourcing of vital support activities such as Stores,
destroying the job as we know it. stopped, but it will be the battle of our lives and only by unsafe work-place and reducing the number of trainers. DMU and Admin
They have already started by abolishing the standing together will we win. This can only lead to one thing, a tragic accident. Fleet members will fight to maintain our core
On top of all this, Fleet management has work agreement and to safeguard jobs and conditions.
RMT will strike unless TfL withdraws demands for cuts
• TfL wants you to fund over £3bn of cuts to London’s transport system
• Hard won framework agreements and protection from casualised working are at risk
• Unfilled vacancies suggest massive job cuts in the pipeline

Fight to defend Funding

your pension model is
The TfL occupational pension is crucial
to our ability to make ends meet in
retirement.
cause of
cuts
The UK state pension pays an
average of only 28% of a retired workers
previous earnings. In most European
countries the state pension replaces more
than 50% with the Netherlands and Spain TfL was already seeking £1bn cuts to its
paying over 80% and Italy paying 92%. annual spending even before Covid hit.
With such pathetic state help for In the face of Covid, instead
pensioners in the UK our occupational of fighting for a restoration of the
pension is absolutely vital. government grant the Mayor and TfL
It is a lie that Britain cannot afford management have accepted that self-
to maintain occupational pensions. Even financing must still be implemented. TfL
after the banking crisis in 2008 and Covid will now try to increase that £1bn cut and
last year, Britain’s national output per head could end up cutting over £3bn, if they can
of population (GDP per capita) is higher get away with it.
than at any time before 2004. So if we RMT has demanded that instead of
could afford pensions then, why can’t we reviewing jobs and pensions there should
afford them now? be an investigation into the amount of
In fact, the TfL scheme is 98% money that TfL pays out to private firms
funded. There is no economic reason to who pay massive salaries to executives and
change it at all.
The truth is the super-rich elites
EVEN WITH USAGE DOWN LUL MEMBERS CREATE THOUSANDS OF POUNDS FOR THE dividends to share-holders.
We want an investigation into the
and their friends in government want to LONDON ECONOMY EVERY SHIFT level of state support that TfL gets compared
grab an even greater share of our national
wealth than they have now. · The Tube is needed as much as ever with other similar transport systems like the
New York subway and Paris Metro.
Twenty-four new billionaires have · London’s big business is pushing to get workers back into the workplace A small surcharge on City of London
been created in Britain during the Covid · There is still massive wealth in London bonuses paid to millionaires would easily
pandemic.
· 24 new billionaires were created during the pandemic cover the TfL funding gap.
They see every pound put in our
pensions as money that should be used · Make the rich pay for public services Massive cuts on TfL/LUL are not an
unavoidable consequence of Covid. They
to pay subsidies to their firms or cut their · Essential workers are still essential are a choice made by the Mayor and TfL
tax bills. RMT will not let them grab our
pensions.
· We will fight to save jobs and conditions management who bow down to demands
from government.
See back page for more on

www.rmt.org.uk
RMT will not stand by and let it
defending our pension. happen.
 TfL MEMBERS French Rail Unions
Successfully LU ENGINEERING GRADES
From Transformation to Financial Defend Privatisation and non-filling of vacancies
Sustainability: it’s all just an Retirement at 57 prepares job cuts in Engineering
excuse to attack jobs, pay, (or 52 for Drivers)
pensions and conditions RMT spoke with CGT branch
secretary (Paris) Matthieu, he
told us:
The pension system
in France was born in the
beginning of 20th Century,
after strikes of railway, bus and
underground workers, miners,
power-workers, and dockers.
After WW2, the
government from the resistance
against fascism created a public
and unified Social Security to
give pensions to all French
workers.
The present retirement
age in France is 62 for all but
it is 57 for the railway-workers
(SNCF) and the bus/metro
workers (RATP), power-workers
and dockers. For train drivers
the retirement age is 52.
President Macron tried to
change that to a retirement age
of 64 for all. Unions responded
with a huge general strike,
Following three years of Transformation from 2016 to 2019, which hit demonstrations and strong
thousands of staff who sit under LU & TfLs MATS Functional Councils, actions against the attacks and
the Covid pandemic has obviously given senior management the idea to defend our pension system!
that they now have carte blanche to carry out further culls to staffing Transport workers were
levels and pile even more of a work load onto those of us who will be at the head of the movement Management has run down engineering staffing killed? Signal maintenance such as boxes and points are
left behind to pick up the pieces....well it’s time to say a resounding and received strong support levels by failing to fill vacancies. This has undermined constantly under review. Less maintenance means fewer
NO. from our brothers and sisters promotion opportunities for years and LU have now staff and in case you do not get it, that means YOUR
We won’t accept this and we will fight!  all over the world, including come clean saying they want to remove those jobs JOB GONE.
It’s time to stand up to the scores of directors and senior the British RMT and the World completely and use fixed term contracts to fill future   When London Underground privatised us into
management who just keeping making the working lives of us integral Federation of Trade-Unions positions. Some 540 non-permanent workers already Metronet and Tubelines under the failed PPP model,
core workers more difficult. (WFTU). maintain the lines. This is a huge number of staff, yet we organised and we got stronger. We upped our
It is us who actually keep the underground operating everyday After two months of there is no money to recruit for our direct staff! At the game and forced the fat cats into numerous hard-won
as we all did throughout this dreadful pandemic. We have to tell strikes and class actions, in the same time, the private companies are laughing all the agreements. LUL want to review and combine these
management, in no uncertain terms, enough is enough! beginning of the Covid situation way to the bank. now as part of their drive for ‘cost savings’.
Management wants to get rid of real face to face training and in France, the government   We are constantly fighting against unsafe The Martini model of employment, meaning
replace it with more e-training or virtual training. This would be the 3rd decided to take off its bill: The changes to standards that affect our safety inspections anytime, any place, anywhere means being flexible, as
cull of trainers in the last six years. French working class officially and maintenance regimes. We used to patrol the LUL put it. But for us it will mean misery, despair and
Our hard-working admin staff all around the business won!!! track daily, then up to every three days, then a week cuts. We will not be shaken but we will be stirred into
have already been treated appallingly over the past five years with Of course, we know that in depots. The relentless push to do more with fewer action. We will give not one inch or leave any stone
enforced location moves, new ways of working (which don’t work), and the bosses and the government people. What next, patrol once every four weeks on a unturned to defend what is ours and what we have won
relocation into hubs with increased workloads. still want to destroy our pension risk assessment and probability that people will not be previously.
These members will once again be in the firing line to cop even system and our Social Security,
more work kindly handed down from above. but this victory shows us that RMT members working for subcontractors of TfL are also in the firing line
The new round of cuts will be impacting on TfL, LUL, it's possible to fight and win to
contractors and all grades. RMT’s message to the MATS members is defend our class interests. Cleaners, protection staff, catering members, security guards and engineering contractors will
clear... if we all stick together and all say NO to the attacks on all of our Long live CGT, long live all be expected to do more for less as TfL squeezes the contracts. The only people you can be sure
hard earned & fought for terms & conditions, they will have to listen to RMT: solidarity forever! won’t lose out are the senior managers in both TfL and the contracting companies.
us.
 FIGHT TO SAVE YOUR PENSION
Why is the TfL pension so important?
Pensions are deferred wages that form part of your mercy of financial markets at the time you retire.
contractual wages and conditions. The current State RMT has recently carried out some research
Pension Age (SPA) for most workers is between age into DB versus DC and what we have found is that if a
66 or 67 and is set to increase to age 68 for anyone member was to contribute the level of contributions
born after 1978. The current single persons Basic into a DC arrangement (5%) for 20 years they would
State Pension is £179.60 a week (£9,339 a year). So receive less than one-third of the pension they would
if you are thinking that you won’t be able to work have received had they been a member of the TfL
into your late 60s and there is no way you can afford Pension Fund.
to live on £179.60 a week, you are going to need TfL has commissioned a laughingly misnamed
to make sure that we maintain our TfL occupational independent report into our pension. Rather than be
scheme. independent though, it starts from the completely
The TfL pension fund currently has unjustified position that our final salary pension is,
approximately 26,000 contributing members, 32,500 “expensive, outdated and must be reformed”. This is
pensioners, 16,800 deferred members and assets to the nonsense of course. The Independent view is nothing
value of £10.5bn. The importance of the fund should more than politically motivated and is timed to take
not be understated when considering not only the level advantage of the financial situation TfL finds itself in.
of benefits you will receive at retirement but also the It is unacceptable that workers are being asked to
protection members of the fund receive in respect of ill balance the books by potentially losing some of their
health and death in service benefits. At present the fund future pension rights.
is 98% funded. There is no justification for changing its RMT will fight against any attempt to make
terms. us pay more contributions, cut the pension payout or
The TfL Pension Fund is what is known as a restrict who can be in the fund.
Defined Benefit (DB) arrangement and members of The closure of the TfL Pension Fund to new
the fund are given a “promise” that they will receive a members in our experience will result in more financial
certain level of pension at retirement which is based pressure being placed on TfL as the TfL Pension Fund
on their contributary service and their final salary becomes underfunded. The maths is simple as more
before retirement. This is simply known as a final salary members retire or leave LUL, and fewer members join,
promise. Having this promise allows members to this results in lower contributions coming into the fund
accurately plan for their retirement. which then places more strain on the employer to meet
Our pension scheme gives members a better benefit any shortfall. This often results in further benefit changes
outcome at retirement than career average schemes as employers try to balance the books.
and a much better outcome than Defined Contribution This scenario has been played out across many
(DC) schemes. DB pension schemes leaving members in poverty in
The level of pension at retirement in a DC their retirement. But RMT will not go along with the lies
pension scheme is dependent on the amount of that say Britain in the 21st century can no longer afford
contributions paid into an individual’s ‘pension pot’ and to pay decent pensions.
the investment returns during the run up to retirement. Britain remains a wealthy country and we will
The level of pension at retirement depends on the size of never accept the impoverishment of our members just
the pension pot built up before retirement so you at the to cut costs for the bosses.

YOUR RMT PENSION REPS ARE FIGHTING TO DEFEND YOUR PENSION

RMT is represented on the board of trustees of the TfL pension, the pensions consultative committee and the Pensions
Working Group.
Your RMT pensions reps have told TfL that our union will not agree to any changes to our pension scheme that reduce
befits or raise costs to employees.
There is no justification for undermining our pension fund, which is 98% funded and is part of our members agreed terms
and conditions of employment.

Your RMT pensions reps are:

Steve Hedley Trustee & Pensions Working Group

Paul Murphy Trustee & Pensions Working Group
Sonja Folarin Trustee & Pensions Consultative Committee
Mark Harding Pensions Consultative Committee
Jane Gwynn Pensions Consultative Committee
Pete Woods Pensions Consultative Committee