TfL issues statement as Croydon tram workers set to strike

TfL has said it “would never enter conversations in bad faith” as the Croydon Tramlink engineers plan to strike this month.

Unite has announced that engineers vital to the running of Croydon Tramlink will go on strike over pay from May 5 to May 9.

Unite said: “Around 60 trams, stores and infrastructure engineers are angry that their colleagues on the London Underground, who need the same qualifications and perform the same roles, are paid up to £10,000 more a year.”

There were plans for strike action in March but was postponed allowing for talks with TfL.

But the negotiations failed because Unite claims TfL "refused to be transparent about the process it was using to identify pay disparities and broke its word on how they would be resolved" and that TfL was negotiating in “bad faith.”

A spokesperson for TfL said: “We would never enter conversations in bad faith and have been open and honest throughout the process.

"We have agreed to work with union colleagues to identify equivalent roles in London Underground, assess any disparity in overall benefits packages, and where agreed take action where appropriate.

"This will take time and we have asked that this strike action be suspended to allow this to happen."

“We remain committed to continued dialogue to reach a conclusion and ask the union to suspend this action, which will only cause unnecessary inconvenience for our customers.”

There will be no service from 8pm on Sunday, May 5, and the strike will not end until 6am on Thursday, May 9.

Transport for London (TfL) has engaged in negotiations for more than five years about the employment contracts of its workers.

Despite their technical roles, these workers have been classified as office workers, meaning in lower pay, and stopped workers from working together.

In 2023, TfL agreed to change the workers' contracts, but according to Unite, the implementation of this commitment has not happened yet.