Tube fat cats

LU Managing Director Mark Wild informed staff in an Employee Bulletin this morning that Chief Operating Officer Steve Griffiths would be stepping down.

Tubeworker is pleased to publish this poem we've been sent, written to mark the occasion by E. J. Thribb, an Operational Apprentice aged 17½.

So. Farewell then,
Steve Griffiths
Whose departure as LU Chief Operating Officer was announced today.

Our long-awaited back pay has finally been paid, giving our June pay packets a bit of a boost.

We all know we're relatively well paid compared to a lot of other workers, but we also need to keep that in perspective. If you work on stations, it's likely that you're now being paid at least £6,000 less than you should be for the job you're doing, as LU has forced us all into unpaid promotions that have seen us take on the work previously done by the grade above us.

Has there been a new Tube extension built to Australia? Maybe that’s where all the PPP cash went; anyway, we have a new managing Director on his (it’s always his) way from Australia. Mark Wild is leaving his current role as Special Advisor to the Minister and Secretary of The State Government of Victoria to take up the top job at LU.

No sooner had the preliminary discussions on a new pay deal for LU staff begun than the Chief Operating Officer got his tiny violin out and started tugging at our heartstrings about how terribly hard up the company is.

"We face a difficult financial climate ... Further pressure on our finances is inevitable ... Organisations in both the private and public sectors have seen severe pay restraint or pay freezes..."

In other words: don't get your hopes up, guys and girls. We might find you some crumbs from the table, but that'll be about your lot.

The latest expenses from TfL show an expense from Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy of £450 for a "working lunch".

Tubeworker isn’t suggesting the expense is improper; although we reckon we spend, at most, £5 a day on lunch or dinner whilst at work, so £450 would buy us meals for three months. And our meal break is unpaid, despite needing to eat to have the energy to get through the day and sell our labour back to the boss.

So, the company is skint, right? So skint it has to make savings in the form of closing every ticket office and cutting nearly 1,000 jobs, right?

Right, but apparently not too skint to send each of us, personally, a Christmas card from top boss Mike Brown.

Tubeworker thinks the money might be better spent elsewhere. Of course, in the new-think propaganda world of LU senior managers this is a lovely gesture; Christmas card in one hand, P45 in the other.

So, Farewell Phil. You weren't here very long, but you managed to announce the closure of all ticket offices and a thousand job cuts before jumping ship and boarding HMS Network Rail.

We're sure it was tough, but equally sure that you were handsomely rewarded for your efforts, and will continue to be so in your new post.