Tube drivers set for £80,000 salary in TfL bid to stop strikes

0:02Hi, I'm Charlie Duffield and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up later in the show, Subway is serving up the ultimate British breakfast mashup, but the result is worrying. Abhorrent. Utterly abhorrent.

0:30It's not food. That's not food. So this is Subway's new breakfast, jack-o-potato combining supposedly two great well no they are two great things in british dining the jack-o-potato and the full english um two things i love on their own um subway isn't where i'd go for either the sandwich shop if you can call them sandwiches uh launched jack-o-potato earlier this year and they've proved successful so they've kept them on long term and they're obviously trialling different things. But first, tube drivers have been offered an enhanced pay deal that could take their salaries to around£80 ,000 a year, the standard can exclusively reveal today.

1:13It comes after a five-day walkout by RMT at the beginning of September, which led to widespread chaos in the capital. Transport for London made the revised offer at a meeting with four tube unions on Monday, amid concern that a proposed three-year deal, tabled last month, faced rejection by hardline members of the RMT union and the potential for more strikes. Now, the revised pay offer ensures London Underground staff waders will rise faster than the cost of living. TFL boss Andy Lord says he hopes unions will accept the new pay deal. Despite our pay offer being made in line with agreements accepted by the RMT in recent pay negotiations across the wider rail industry, regrettably the RMT chose to move forward with the industrial action and doing so without putting the offer to their members.

2:03Talks with our trade unions have continued and we have made a revised proposal to all of them which they are considering and I hope they will accept and put the proposal to their members and we can reach agreement as soon as possible. The proposal, which TfL describes as a full and final offer, will be available to all 16 ,500 London Underground staff and would mean that the basic tube driver's salary would increase from£71 ,170 to a minimum of£77 ,692 by April 2027 and more if inflation remains at around 3 % or higher. Currently, most tube station staff earn around£45 ,000, but the three-year pay offer will take their salaries nearer to£50 ,000.

2:53Joining us now is the Standard City Hall and Transport Editor, Ross Lydell. Tell me a bit more about this story, Ross. At the start of September, there was a five-day tube strike that involved members of the RMT union refusing to work. This was primarily about the union's demand for a 32-hour working week, not so much about pay, although there was a pay offer on the table. But what's happened now is that TFL has revised its pay offer. That will then give a three-year deal to not just the RMT members working for Transport for London on the London Underground, but all members of London Underground staff.

3:31And the hope is that finally this could essentially get the deal over the line and prevent any more strikes over the next three years, certainly in relation to pay. So is this going to work out well for tube drivers? I think it's a fair deal in the sense that the money that is being offered is linked to the RPI rate of inflation. Now, that's normally higher than what people understand as a general rate of inflation, the CPI rate of inflation. And that means essentially that the wages of all tube staff will rise in relation to the cost of living. Their pay should keep pace with the cost of being a Londoner.

4:07So that strikes me as fair. The three-year deal is linked to RPI as measured in February of each year. But in the third year, it gets slightly more complicated in that it will always be 0.2 % higher than the RPI rate. Their pay by the end of the deal will actually be going up higher or more quickly than the general cost of living. The challenge, though, for TFL is that if the RPI rate does go up substantially, then it will still have to shell out. It's offered this as a guarantee to the union members and it's going to have to honour the deal. How does the demand for a four-day working week fit into this?

4:45So the four-day working week was essentially the main point of the strike. This strike caused quite a considerable amount of disruption, chaos you could see for many, many Londoners. People were able to use the Lizzie Line or London Overground or many took to two wheels and cycled round. But for many Londoners, it was a complete pain in the backside, to be frank, and it meant we couldn't get in and out of central London. And the main point of that strike was the R &T's longstanding demand to reduce the working week for tube staff from 35 hours a week at present to 32 hours a week. It essentially was a longstanding demand and something we wanted introduced over a number of years.

5:24But what is interesting about this offer from TfL is that there is no reduction in the working week whatsoever that is being offered. So the central point of the strike has not been achieved. So you could say it's almost the RMT has had to concede on this point. The central point of its industrial action has not been achieved. They have not succeeded. Some people might be thinking, do tube drivers deserve to earn 80 grand a year? That's a lot of money. And especially given that lots of public sector workers like teachers and nurses earn considerably less. Well, looking at the other professions, nurses have recently rejected a 3.6 % pay rise for the current year.

6:08So that's actually more than is being offered in this year to tube staff. The tube staff offer is 3.4 % being backdated to April. So nurses, or certainly members of the Royal Colleges of Nursing, have rejected that. Teachers have been offered 4 % from September this year. Again, that's higher than tube staff. So comparatively, these other key professions have been offered more money than tube drivers. It may be the case, though, they're on a lower salary. Is it a skilled job? Yes, driving a tube is a skilled job. It's obviously a very important job, bearing in mind the safety considerations as well.

6:45The other thing, of course, is that it's not a job that everybody would want to do. It can involve antisocial hours. It can involve driving trains and tunnels for seven hours a day. So I wouldn't say it's necessarily a fun job, but it's probably fair to say that the amount of pay on offer to be a tube driver is sort of commensurate with the skills required and the antisocial aspect of the job. Finally, is there anything else you want to add? The other thing to bear in mind is that many of the staff in tube stations that will be seen by Londoners, they are on a much lower rate of pay. They are not earning 70 grand or 80 grand a year.

7:25So nobody is getting rich quick. by being a tube station worker. Even after three years of pay rises, these people would be earning more than£50 ,000, again, probably below the average wage in London. Let's go to a break. Coming up in part two, how good is the Subway jacket potato full English? We'll see you back here in just a moment. Welcome back. If you're craving comfort food as the autumnal weather kicks in, perhaps you'll be tempted by a new creation from the American sandwich slinger Subway. The chain has been a high street fixture since 1996, but it's far from noteworthy. However, on Friday, it launched its brand new Breckwich Jacket Potato to Shake Things Up, which it described as a brilliantly British creation, essentially merging two classic dishes, a full English breakfast and Jacket Potato with beans and cheese.

8:23The Standard's food and drink writer, Josh Barry was lucky enough to try out the dish but spoiler alert he was not impressed. Here's his taste test in action. This is apparently a full English jacket potato which is out today or was out on Friday nationwide. I saw it being made and they put a jacket potato, they plucked a jacket potato from a little tray, put some bacon in it if that's if that's bacon. I mean Jesus Christ. an egg, which they broke in half. There's some cheese in there by the look of it as well. And the sausage element is this. Whatever that is. I mean, this is honestly horrific.

9:09Like a boron. This should be illegal. This should not exist. I suppose I should have some of this sausage. Bit of egg. Right. Okay.

9:28No. Oh. Okay, that's it. I'm not having that. I'll try hash brown. There might be some hope in the hash brown. And then I'm going to stop. I asked for ketchup and they just twatted it all over the place.

9:48Mm-hmm. The hash brown is the least offensive thing. It's not a proper hash brown, it's not crispy. It's being rolled through their heating thing or whatever. The egg is poached and it's like one of those poached eggs you get in Pret or whatever. The bacon is like just truly horrendous. The jack-o-potato itself, I don't think I've actually tasted it. A bit of potato, some cheese.

10:21I mean, the jack-o-potato is edible. It's not very nice, but yeah. That's awful. Don't buy it. Seriously, don't. And Subway needs to probably really reconsider its entire outlook on life. It's disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. And Josh joins me now. Josh, why has Subway decided to put this big breakfast spud on the menu? It's more about capturing attention than providing people with some kind of wondrous culinary experience. I think is a case at Subway where it's not really known for its high gastronomic standards. At the heart of it, it was an idea of celebrating British classics, jack-o'-potato, who doesn't like a jack-o'-potato, especially in colder weather, and then full English, which is one of our greatest food triumphs in the UK.

11:12Combining the two is at face value. It's just a bit of fun, isn't it? It's not really worked out well. So talk me through the components of this dish. So the dish is supposed to be jacket potato filled with mixed cheddar cheese, you know, deep stuff you get in a bag, an egg, bacon. The sausage is the kind that you get in breakfast muffin or whatever, and then hash browns and then ketchup if you want it or whatever sauce, you know. And the picture online, it's on a Kingham tablecloth, and somebody's put out this nice sort of cafe image with a cup of tea and a squeezy bottle of ketchup and stuff.

11:45It just sort of looks like, oh, this is one of those silly things that's on the high street that people might be interested in. I thought it was quite funny. Clearly, Subway is trying something new and trying to be innovative. And I was given a sack of potato who was in a steel tray, cold. They eat it through the cheese. I think they forgot the baked beans. Bacon was anemic, really flabby, like awful. Hash browns should never be circulate. They should be golden and crisp and triangular and wonderful. A good hash brown is a mighty thing. So the eating experience here was diabolical. Like one of the worst things I've ever tried.

12:18And how much does it cost? It's not very expensive, obviously. I've got a sandwich. I had to try some little chicken nugget things, which were equally disgusting. I was just curious. Basically just cornflakes around bad chicken. I don't understand how these things make it to market. Like, is that food development teams have lost the plot? Or is it that the British public just like this bad stuff? Like, I don't know. Either way, it fills me with despair. So I got a drink, that little side thing, a jack of potato, with the horrible stuff and a cookie and it cost me£14, which is not bad in modern times, but none of it was worth the money.

12:57I actually think they gave me the cookie for free because it was part of a meal deal, most likely. The cookie was the only edible thing I got. It wasn't bad, actually. I mean, it was fine. Just sugar, isn't it? If we're talking about breakfast on the go, where else would you recommend? Breakfast on the go? Any greasy spoon in London will do you a nice bacon sandwich, Bacon and egg sandwich, especially something like Bar Bruno in Soho, one of my favourites. If ever you find yourself in Soho, go and get a bacon and egg chiamatta. It costs you like five, six quid. What other breakfasts? Places like Chatsworth Bake Us, which is a more upscale, high-end place in Crystal Palace.

13:30Wonderful sandwiches, really inventive and interesting. Where else? You know, get a dosa or to-go from any number of southern Indian restaurants that are around, whether Drummond Street or Boutine. they'll probably be about five as well. So do you think Subway can redeem itself here? Subway should just change its entire concept and outlook. I'm loathe to say I'll shut it down because it's a lot of jobs, but generally I think it's just like really bad. And there are loads of places for cheap food. You get like a passable sausage and an omelette back from Greg's for£3.99 or whatever, or the sausage, bean and cheese melt, what, like£2, I mean?

14:10That's not bad. I mean, for the price, that's the value. It's worth that money. In the same way that I think if you market for it, blinis with smoked salmon, cream cheese and caviar is worth 50 quid or whatever. A really great breakfast I had not so long ago was at BAFTA, which is a private club, obviously, but it opens up to the public for breakfast. And the cooked breakfast is tremendous. It's really, really good produce, 20 quid or something. And you're in the BAFTA building with a lovely terrace, like an oasis looking out over the trees of Mayfair slash St. James's. Finally, I know you've got some more recommendations for us.

14:45First of all, Subway's next door to Zero One Pizzeria, Neapolitan Pizzeria. I think that opens at 11am or midday or whatever, and that is one of the best Neapolitan Pizzerias in London by far. Absolutely wonderful, wonderful dough. Really, really good Italian ingredients, and run by a great guy from Napoli called André. Only a tenner for a pizza. I mean, there are loads of little nice places. or just go around to Hwang Viet, which is two minutes around the corner. If that, and they do banh mi, Vietnamese baguettes filled with crispy pork belly, mouli, carrot, coriander. Hard to beat that for a tenner.

15:24And that's The Standard. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. If you'd like to get in touch, please do drop us a line at podcasts at standard.co.uk. We'll be back here tomorrow at 5pm. We'll see you then.