According to the RMT's own figures less than a third of members voted for strike action.
"There will be no compulsory redundancies, our stations will continue to be staffed at all times while trains are operating, and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one."
Richard Parry
LU Director of Strategy

There will be no compulsory redundancies, our stations will continue to be staffed at all times while trains are operating, and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one.

  • RMT 'scaremongering' despite assurances that high safety standards will remain

London Underground (LU) has called on the RMT leadership to abandon its threat of strike action over LU's staffing proposals after less than a third of its membership voted for strike action.

LU has repeated its assurance that the Tube's high safety standards will not be affected by the new staffing proposals, and that there will be no compulsory redundancies. LU has also made clear that:

  • Safety and customer service remain the top priorities
  • Staff remain available at every station to help passengers
  • All stations that currently have a ticket office service will continue to have one with opening hours that meet passenger demand

Richard Parry, LU Director of Strategy, said: 'The RMT leadership is once again scaremongering.

'Given the economic climate and the huge fall in the number of people using ticket offices, we need to change and make sure we have the most efficient organisation possible to deliver value for our customers and taxpayers whilst maintaining our firm commitment to safety and customer service.

'There will be no compulsory redundancies, our stations will continue to be staffed at all times while trains are operating, and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one.

'This vote for strike action is unnecessary; any industrial action will simply lose staff pay.

'Only 1 in 20 journeys now involves any interaction at a ticket office window. 

'We are therefore seeking to deploy staff more visibly in stations where they can more easily assist passengers.

'We continue with local consultation and are available at all times to speak with Unions about the details of our proposals.'

The changes would not affect Tube Drivers, and the majority of the roughly 800 posts that are identified for reduction are ticket office staff; this also includes a saving of around 150 posts from reductions in management and administrative staff.

This is out of a total of around 19,000 London Underground staff, so represents less than five per cent of the workforce. Some 250 positions are already, or are expected to become, vacant - so these would merely not be filled.

Some 80 per cent of all Tube journeys are now made using Oyster and, as the numbers using ticket offices decline, there is growing use of internet sales and automatic top-ups.

On stations, there is now much greater provision of self-service ticket machines, and a network of 4,000 ticket stops now also exists at shops and retail outlets across the Capital.

Instead of having staff stationed in under-used ticket offices, LU wants them out on the stations where customers need them - on platforms, in ticket halls and at gate lines where they can assist passengers.

In addition to LU's ongoing commitment to having staff where customers need them most, there are also more police patrolling the Tube network - 700 officers - than ever before. 

This helped to reduce crime by eight per cent last year. 

While one crime is always too many, there are now just 12 crimes per million Tube customer journeys. LU is also installing more and improved CCTV cameras to add to the 12,000 already on stations and trains.