London bus strikes 2023: Drivers will walkout for three days leading up to Christmas

Bus drivers in west London will stage three days of walkouts next week in the run up to Christmas.

Around 350 drivers and engineers who are Unite the union members will strike on Thursday December 21, Friday December 22 and Saturday December 23.

The workers, who are employed by London Transit, which is owned by French-company RATP, are striking after they rejected a 6.8% pay offer. Unite says this is a real term pay cut, with the true inflation rate (RPI) currently standing at 11.4%.

The union says the dispute is also over the company’s attempt to reduce terms and conditions, including removing a longstanding £500 meal relief payment and “attacking” arrangements for how workers take days off in lieu.

The bus drivers have already completed four days of their planned winter strike action and walked out on November 10 and 13 and December 1 and 4.

The workers are based at the Westbourne Park Garage in the Notting Hill area and the strikes will impact the 13, 23, 28, 218, 295, 414, 452 and N28 routes.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “RATP is a huge multinational firm and can afford to put forward a fair pay rise and drop its attack on these workers’ terms and conditions. Instead, it is making this dispute worse by insulting the workforce with completely unacceptable offers. Unite will not stand for attacks on our members' jobs, pay or conditions and the workers at London Transit have the total support of their union.”

A spokesperson for London Transit said: “We are disappointed at the ballot result and the decision to proceed with industrial action. Strikes will cause inconvenience to the public and further loss of earnings for our hard-working employees.

"We have made a competitive and fair offer, worth 8.3% in total, aligned to our commitment to protect drivers and engineers from inflation and reward their efforts.

"While union representatives declined our most recent offer to continue discussions on this year’s pay round, we remain ready to engage at any point. We very much hope that they will meet us and that strikes can be averted.”

Louise Cheeseman, TfL's director of buses, said: “If this action goes ahead there will still be travel options for people in west London and other parts of the capital. Other routes may be busier than normal and we're encouraging everyone who might be affected to plan ahead, allow extra time for their journeys and check before they travel using our website or the TfL Go app.

“We encourage both parties to find a solution to this dispute to avoid disruption to Londoners. We're sorry for any disruption to people's journeys.”