After TfL rejected the Trades Unions (TUs) request for urgent talks at ACAS, another Special Company Council (SCC) was held on Tuesday 15th May, with TfL and the TUs to discuss the Olympics.

All TUs agree the following:

• They want the Olympics to be a success, and for its transport workers to play a full and rewarding role in delivering a world class spectacle for London.
• That staff in TfL should be paid the same for doing the same job as their colleagues in LU (for current offer, please see separate table). We believe this is only fair.
• That TfL should not – under any circumstances – bully or intimidate staff to “volunteer”. If you feel you are being pressured to do so, please contact your local TU rep immediately.
• That TfL should recognise (as they have done in LU) the huge contribution that “core” staff, who they have banned from volunteering as they are vital to running TfL during the Games will make. Without ALL our hard work, the Games will not be a success.

To the TUs bitter disappointment, yesterday’s SCC - despite your TU’s every effort - was a failure. TfL refuses to recognise its core staff. TfL refuses to pay TfL staff the same as LU staff. TfL refuses to rule out paying contractors £500 PER DAY to be Travel Ambassadors, when it refuses to pay its own staff that amount as an allowance for 2 months work!

Therefore, your TUs wish to make you aware of the following:

• If you volunteer, under TfL’s current offer, you could be standing next to an LU colleague earning £850 (1) whilst you earn nothing.
• That if you volunteer and work a shift within “normal” office hours, you will not even qualify for the £20 “bonus” payment per shift. You will receive nothing. Your LU colleagues will receive £500.
• If you volunteer to work at midnight during the week, you will receive £20. Your LU colleague standing next to you will receive £500.
• If you volunteer to work during a weekday during office hours, you could be working with a contractor earning £hundreds per day, whilst you receive nothing extra.

We ask you to bear this in mind when deciding if you should volunteer.

It is a great disappointment to your TUs that rather than accept our request for talks at ACAS, offered in the hope that TfL would work with us to deliver a Games we could all be proud of, TfL refused and continue to play a high stakes poker game, hoping in the face of reality that it will be all right on the night.

We will continue to do everything we can to solve this impasse, and urge TfL to accept the urgent request that your TUs are making again, to meet for talks at ACAS. We will continue to press TfL for a fair deal.

Published May 16th 2012 by the Company Council Reps of the Joint TfL Trades Unions.

1. £100 of the LU offer to all staff is dependant on LU CSS scores being achieved