LONDON UNDERGROUND: Tube cleaners strike off after "massive breakthrough"

8:36am Thursday 21st August 2008

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A ROW over pay which would have seen hundreds of London Underground cleaners down their mops for two days has been averted.

More than 700 Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) Union members working for four subcontractors were due to start 48-hours of industrial action which was due to begin today and end on Saturday, August 23.

But managers agreed to pay workers the London Living Wage of £7.45 per hour which is an increase on the £5.50 an hour they were receiving.

Union bosses hailed the deal as a 'massive breakthrough.'

Bob Crow, the RMT's General Secretary, said:"That is a massive improvement on the prospect presented by the mayor of having to wait for contracts to be re-negociated, which would have left some of our members waiting until 2012."

Workers on Metronet contracts will receive the living wage from the beginning of September while Tubelines employees will receive an initial 60p per hour increase from September 1, and a further £1.30 hourly increase from April 1 2009.