Tube drivers’ £72,000 salary not enough to buy house in London, union boss says
The boss of the Railway Union claimed that a salary of £ 72,000 won by some striking tube workers was not enough to buy a house in London.
Eddie DEMPSEY, Secretary General of the Railway, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Association, was questioned from the salary of London underground workers in the midst of a week’s strike in the capital.
When asked for Times Radio on Wednesday, when a 72,000 £ worker was not paid well, Mr. Dempsey said: “Well, in London, you can’t afford to buy a house from £ 72,000.”
RMT members are involved in a dispute over wages and hours, which are largely affected by many tube lines off -service or industrial action.
According to London for London (TFL), the average tube driver rose to £ 71.160, and station staff rose to £ 44.140 in a few months.
The salaries of RMT members, who demanded a four -day working week, contributed to the disappointment of some of them, some of which were broken by the strike in the city.
According to the London -based Center for Economics and Business Research (EBR), the city economy will directly hit at least £ 230 million.
Mr. Dempsey was also asked whether the workers who received a salary of £ 72,000 were already paid well.
He said that this was a “good fee ;; However, he added that it is not enough to buy a house in London, where the average price was £ 561,000 in June. in accordance with National Statistics Office.
“I think workers should be able to afford to live in London. And … If you need to earn more than £ 100,000 to buy a house in London, £ 72,000 is not outside this world.”
“We do not apologize for our members to fight tightly, and that’s why our members have good conditions. And the people in the media attack us because we have wages that most people in England have lost. So we don’t apologize for that.
“We understand that disruptions are a real pain for people. We do not enjoy it. However, the only way to solve it is through a negotiated settlement.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Dempsey said it was a “collapse ği that he warned that he could lead to more industrial action in industrial relations. Uz We want to progress to recognize about the impact of shift work, ”he said.
Downing Street called on RMT and London for London (TFL) to return to the negotiation table to end the strike.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman: “We want to see that RMT and TFL revolve around the table when it comes to these strikes, and work with goodwill to solve this to the interests of the passengers.”
TFL, while offering a wage increase of 3.4 percent rejected to workers, London Underground’s Customer Operations Director Nick Dent, the union’s 35 -hour week’s deduction demands “simply not met” and will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, he said.
