|
|
Post by snoggle on Apr 13, 2017 10:38:38 GMT
Apparently some trainee bus drivers are not being paid the London Living Wage which is a contractual requirement TfL impose on operators. The Mayor is "not happy"! www.mayorwatch.co.uk/furious-sadiq-khan-orders-bus-firms-to-stop-underpaying-trainee-drivers/No companies are named but it's a tad ironic that Unite had to find this out and report it rather than TfL having done audit checks on operators' compliance with what is a key determinant of the cost of bus operations (i.e. driver wages). That doesn't put TfL in the best of lights IMO. |
|
|
|
Post by towertransit70 on Apr 13, 2017 10:52:00 GMT
I applaude Unite for giving this information to the Mayor. Its called a living wage for a reason!!! Trainee drivers are trainee but they should be paid the living wage aswell, because they are still workers, even if its for a short term!
|
|
|
|
Post by redbus on Apr 13, 2017 18:30:51 GMT
I applaude Unite for giving this information to the Mayor. Its called a living wage for a reason!!! Trainee drivers are trainee but they should be paid the living wage aswell, because they are still workers, even if its for a short term! I have never been a bus driver but as far as I can see driving in a ton of traffic, dealing with other road users, cyclists, passengers, trying to keep an even headway, the list goes on and on, makes the job difficult. Trainee or not I think bus drivers deserve more than the living wage for such a responsible job, so paying less is quite disgraceful. I would like to see those who made the decision to pay less than the living wage to see how easily they could mange trying to live on it!
I agree with snoggle that TfL should be monitoring this and as the chair of TfL I would argue that it is up to the Mayor to get them to do this.
|
|
|
|
Post by snoggle on Apr 13, 2017 21:16:25 GMT
I applaude Unite for giving this information to the Mayor. Its called a living wage for a reason!!! Trainee drivers are trainee but they should be paid the living wage aswell, because they are still workers, even if its for a short term! I have never been a bus driver but as far as I can see driving in a ton of traffic, dealing with other road users, cyclists, passengers, trying to keep an even headway, the list goes on and on, makes the job difficult. Trainee or not I think bus drivers deserve more than the living wage for such a responsible job, so paying less is quite disgraceful. I would like to see those who made the decision to pay less than the living wage to see how easily they could mange trying to live on it!
I agree with snoggle that TfL should be monitoring this and as the chair of TfL I would argue that it is up to the Mayor to get them to do this.
The interesting point here is that this could get rather nasty. The payment of the LLW has been TfL policy for a number of years so *if* this has been going on for a while then this will look very bad for any bus operators involved and also TfL. There may be financial implications if a lot of back pay has to be paid out to those who not paid the correct salary. That's not going to be good for the bus operators. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2017 21:29:45 GMT
It is wrong of course. However, TfL are forcing the bus operators into a corner in my opinion.
TfL have publicly stated they are pursuing reduced contract prices to save money. This makes the firms cut costs.
Evidence suggests some firms shirk on maintenance, so I'm not surprised other cost aspects have been reduced.
I'm also surprised Unite haven't just gone for strike action.
But a question . If said driver lives outside London, does that still mean the LLW is mandatory ?
|
|
|
|
Post by redbus on Apr 13, 2017 21:48:07 GMT
It is wrong of course. However, TfL are forcing the bus operators into a corner in my opinion. TfL have publicly stated they are pursuing reduced contract prices to save money. This makes the firms cut costs. Evidence suggests some firms shirk on maintenance, so I'm not surprised other cost aspects have been reduced. I'm also surprised Unite haven't just gone for strike action. But a question . If said driver lives outside London, does that still mean the LLW is mandatory ? I don't think it matters where a driver lives. Usually for such things the normal place work is what counts, but here I would suggest it is TfL wide, so any driver working on a TfL contracted route would be in scope of LLW. I can't see how TfL can discriminate against routes which are both inside and outside London, or garages outside London as this would get them into some political hot water sooner or later. |
|
|
|
Post by snoggle on Apr 13, 2017 22:11:25 GMT
But a question . If said driver lives outside London, does that still mean the LLW is mandatory ? AFAIK residency is irrelevant. TfL mandate the payment of LLW for all contracted bus service work. It is written into the contracts. This is a long standing thing (at least 7 years, possibly longer) and applies across TfL on all contracted services. Bus drivers on TfL work will work in Greater London either entirely or at least a lot of the time (if they work on the few cross boundary services) so their "workplace" is in London albeit one that moves around London IYSWIM. There should not be a cost pressure per se because TfL should be budgeting sufficient monies so that what they themselves specify or mandate is covered by TfL's own budgets. I completely take the point about the wider competitive pressures but even then TfL should really be looking at the labour cost element of bids to ensure it is priced at LLW levels or above for all bids. I'd expect this to be something that is automatically checked as part of the tender assessment process. Whether my expectations align with actual practice is another question altogether. |
|
|
|
Post by john on Apr 14, 2017 11:41:50 GMT
Well I know the one company it isn't!!! Still got my training wage slips and suffice to say, it's higher (only marginally but higher) than the LLW
|
|
