The London Daily News

News Desk

The management at CT Plus buses are pre-empting any potential disruption caused by a strike by members of the Unite union planned for  Friday.

A statement by CT Plus said:

"CT Plus is very disappointed to inform our passengers that Unite has called a further one-day strike on Friday 15 October. We would like to reassure our passengers that we do not anticipate the strike will cause significant disruption to our services."

The industrial action may affect the six London red bus routes operated by CT Plus: 153; 212; 388; 394; W12 and W13.  Route 812 in Islington may also be affected.

Our passengers may be aware that Unite attempted to disrupt the red bus services operated in London by CT Plus on Friday 8 October.  The overwhelming majority of our workforce chose to ignore the call to strike, and we are proud of all the staff that kept our buses running for the people of London.  Only one service, route 388, was partially affected as only around 20 of our staff chose to strike.  Routes 153, 212, 394, W12 and W13 ran a normal service, as did the 812 hail and ride service.

In the ballot to strike, only 51 people voted in favour – representing just 27% of those balloted and a significantly smaller proportion of the overall workforce. Unite has rejected a pay increase of slightly over 2% and other improvements to terms and conditions, including antisocial hours payments, improved pension contributions and a better deal on sick pay. This pay and conditions offer equates with those offered by other bus operators across London and was designed after lengthy consultations with our staff over the last year.  Clearly the actions of the vast majority of our staff demonstrate that they do not agree with Unite’s assertion that our offer will make them comparatively low paid.