The RMT union has announced that there will be rolling strike action across the London Underground and DLR beginning on Friday 5th September, for seven days, with different grades taking industrial action at differing times.

The union says that the strikes follow failed demands on pay, fatigue management, shift patterns and a reduction in the working week, as well as, it says, failing to honour previous agreements made with staff.

The rolling strikes will affect different staff all week, but if the strikes go ahead, they will collectively cause a week’s worth of disruption for passengers.

The full scale of the expected impact will be known closer to the date, but the current strike plans are:

  • Sunday 7th Sept – Track Access Controllers, London Underground Control Centre, Power/Control and ERU members will strike all day.
  • Monday 8th Sept – All fleet, engineering, stations and train drivers will strike all day.
  • Tuesday 9th Sept – Signallers will strike all day.
  • Wednesday 10th Sept – All fleet, engineering, stations and train drivers will strike all day.
  • Thursday 11th Sept – Signallers will strike all day.

In a separate dispute over pay and conditions, workers on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) will also be striking during this period in the week beginning on Sunday 7th September.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We regularly meet with our trade unions to discuss any concerns that they may have, and we recently met with the RMT to discuss some specific points. We are committed to ensuring our colleagues are treated fairly and, as well as offering a 3.4 per cent pay increase in our ongoing pay discussions, we have made progress on a number of commitments we have made previously. We welcome further engagement with our unions about fatigue and rostering across London Underground, but a reduction in the contractual 35-hour working week is neither practical nor affordable.

“Given the improvements we have recently put in place in response to concerns raised by our unions, we urge the RMT to put our fair, affordable pay offer to their members and to continue to engage with us rather than threaten strike action, which will only disrupt Londoners.”

TfL says that the pay offer it made is in line with offers that already been accepted by RMT in recent pay discussions across the rail industry. They also noted that the strike mandate was achieved prior to TfL’s present offer being made, with a 57.5.% turnout.

RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “Our members are doing a fantastic job to keep our capital moving and work strenuous shift patterns to make sure Londoners get to their destinations around the clock.

“They are not after a King’s ransom, but fatigue and extreme shift rotations are serious issues impacting on our members health and wellbeing- all of which have not been adequately addressed for years by LU management.

“Coupled with the fact there are outstanding issues around staff travel arrangements, an atmosphere of distrust has been created, where our members feel like no one is listening to them.

“RMT will continue to engage LU management with a view to seeking a revised offer in order to reach a negotiated settlement.”

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Updated 14:24 with more details from TfL.