RMT CALLS FOR TRANSPORT FOR LONDON CASH INVESTIGATION

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: july/august 2009 :: RMTnews 12 RMT has called for a full National Audit Office investigation into the use of management consultants by Transport for London after new figures showed that over £15 million has been spent in one section alone in the past two years. The union also referred the matter to the Transport Committee of the GLA and submitted Freedom of Information requests demanding details of the consultancy spend in another nine sections of TfL opearations. The bulk of the cash has been spent on a consultancy contract with Deloittes, whose partners charge TfL an incredible £2,761 a day on the congestion charging and traffic enforcement section alone. Transport for London is currently looking at a multi- billion pound cuts programme and thousands of jobs are known to be at risk across TfL and the Tube. RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said that while TfL staff face the prospect of being thrown on the dole in a jobs massacre, the sky's the limit for the management consultants who appear to be able to charge what they like when they like with no serious accountability to Londoners. "Some of these management consultants earn in a week what some TfL staff would struggle to earn in a year , yet we get lectures from the same managers who are signing off these grotesque fees about how RMT members should take a hit on pay and job security to help them balance the books. "We are going to fight for a forensic examination of the use of management consultants at TfL “We want to know just who is signing off these millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money and why they are doing it while thousands of TfL staff face the threat of the sack," he said. PAY HYPOCRISY RMT also accused senior Tube bosses of “rank hypocrisy” on pay as figures from Transport For London’s annual report showed that 123 managers are now earning more than £100,000 a year. The same managers have been leading the assault on RMT members who have voted to strike a multi-year pay deal which would almost certainly amount to a pay cut well into the next decade and over plans to impose compulsory redundancies. The pay figures show that five TfL/LUL chiefs earn more than a quarter of a million pounds a year plus bonuses. Fifteen TfL bosses, including the director of marketing, earn more than the Prime Minister. These figures have only heightened the anger amongst RMT members who have voted overwhelmingly to strike over attempts to impose pay cuts and compulsory redundancies and over the bullying and harassment of staff. TAKING ACTION: TfL staff have taken strike action in defence of jobs and working conditions in recent years Union calls for investigation into use of consultants at Transport for London while thousands face job cuts RMT CALLS FOR TRANSPORT FOR LONDON CASH INVESTIGATION