As we reported last week the strike action on London Tramlink was suspended although at the time no details of what progress had been made at the talks between ASLEF and Tram Operations Ltd (TOL) was known. However, it has now been reported on the publicly available ASLEF District 8 website that a new three year pay deal plus the reduction to the equivalent of a 35 hour working week has been offered.
First off the pay and the deal will see a minimum of a 9.9% increase over the three years (it is common for these deals to be a multi-year offer). This will be split as 3.2% in November 2018, either 3.2% or RPI (whichever is the higher) in 2019 and the same in November 2020. In addition any qualified driver on the anniversary of the pay award in November 2019 will receive a one off payment of £1000. Any driver who works on New Years Eve will also get additional pay of £100 on top of the standard wage.
Also a key part of the proposed agreement is an additional 13 rest days which will mean drivers are only having to work the equivalent of a 35 hour week – this is considered standard across the rail industry. This will be in place by November 2021 and will be achieved by adding an extra two rest days into each eight week roster cycle (which will give 13 extra rest days in total). This will require an additional 10 drivers to join the company and training of these is due to commence from November 2020.
A new rota is also due to be introduced from Sunday 16th June which will be reduced from seven days to 5/6 per week. This new rota will be reviewed three, six, nine and 12 months after implementation to review fatigue factors.