London bus services will see disruption this month as over 150 Unite members at Transport for London will strike over roster changes.

Workers, who are bus station and network traffic controllers, will walk out from 23 to 25 April, to coincide with RMT workers taking action on the London Underground.

The dispute is around changes to rosters with increased weekend working and further travel to sites across London that teams haven’t previously covered. Unite members say this will leave them fatigued and also put them at risk of disciplinary action as they are unlikely to be able to travel to every site in time.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "These roster changes imposed by TfL on our hardworking members are completely unacceptable and it must reconsider.

"Unite will not allow for detrimental changes to our members' conditions and workers at TfL have our full support in their fight to protect them."

The members involved in the dispute work in bus operations as bus station controllers and network traffic controllers, both safety critical roles at TfL.

Workers' roles include managing bus stations, dealing with incidents and being responsible for the smooth running of the bus network - the most used form of transport across the TfL network.

As the strike dates coincide with those undertaken by tube workers, significant disruption is expected. The underground will see cancellations and delays leading to more bus passengers, but there will be no staff present at bus stations and nobody responsible for risk assessing bus routes and rerouting them if needed.

It was also cause disruption to diversions due to the London Marathon on Sunday 26 April, as the striking workers are responsible for planning diversions and putting physical boards around the capital in the week running up to the event.

Unite regional officer Nadine Edwards said: "TfL is failing to take our members' concerns about the roster changes seriously, therefore they feel they have no choice but to take industrial action to make their voices heard.

"There is still time for TfL to avoid this disruptive action, but it relies on it changing course and coming up with proposals that are acceptable to workers who do a vital, difficult job running London's bus network."

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For media enquiries ONLY please contact Unite press officer Natasha Wynarczyk on 07970081524

Email: natasha.wynarczyk@unitetheunion.org

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