Strike action by engineers working on the Croydon tram network has been called off after Transport for London and the Unite union reached a settlement.
Back to work: the engineers’ strike lasted only two days
The engineers downed tools for their latest strike action on Monday, and were due to stay out of work for a full week, until July 8. They will return to work today, with some disruption to services anticipated until all rolling stock is back on track.
Further strike action planned for later in the month, July 11 to 15, has also been called off.
But even as the workers return to their duties, there will still be disruption across the network this weekend – the “middle weekend” of the Wimbledon tennis championships – as TfL carries out scheduled maintenance work on some of the network’s tracks.
The dispute was over pay parity, or the lack of it, as Unite colleagues doing similar work on Tube trains are paid around £10,000 per year more.
Strike action previously took place in May, after which the lack of routine maintenance work to the network’s ageing rolling stock saw two-thirds of the trams sidelined for safety reasons.
According to union sources, an improved offer “helped substantially to close the pay disparity”. Some trams engineering grades will get a wage increase of up to 20%.
The deal, which was accepted in a ballot by the engineers, also resolved long-running contractual and holiday pay issues.
Last night, Navid Golshan, TfL’s general manager for London Trams, said: “We are pleased that we have resolved this dispute with Unite and the union has withdrawn their industrial action by the London Trams engineers.
“We will look at running as many services as possible from Wednesday, but this is dependent on tram availability, so we recommend customers continue to check before they travel and allow extra time for their journeys until a full planned service can be restored. We would like to thank customers for their patience.”
The planned engineering work on Saturday July 6 and Sunday July 7 is still going ahead.
On these dates, there will be no service between:
- Wellesley Road and New Addington
- Wellesley Road and Beckenham Junction or Elmers End
- New Addington and George Street
- Beckenham Junction or Elmers End and George Street
Trams will run between the following stops:
- Wimbledon and Wellesley Road
- George Street and Wimbledon
Replacement buses will run between:
- East Croydon and New Addington
- East Croydon and Beckenham Junction or Elmers End
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