London bus drivers to vote again over possible strikes

Considering how much money the kuntz in charge have made out of the Olympics scam I think £500 bonus is more than reasonable for the bus drivers...

London bus drivers seek a £500 bonus for extra work during the Olympics.

The Unite trade union is to reballot London bus drivers barred from striking over Olympic bonuses by a high court injunction, as transport bosses criticised "deplorable" protests that disrupted bus services in the capital on Wednesday.

The union will hold a new poll for 4,000 workers at three operators that had secured an injunction over ballot irregularities last week, although thousands of drivers at 17 other operators went ahead with strikes last Frida over a £500 Games payment .

Unite confirmed the move as groups of supporters staged protests outside depots used by the three operators involved in the high court ruling.

Transport for London, which runs the capital's tube and bus networks, said the impromptu protests had disrupted 33 services.

"Any disruption to transport services for Londoners is simply deplorable especially in circumstances where the employers' offer has not even been put to the bus workers themselves," said a TfL spokesperson.

Unite is preparing to announce further strike dates as it steps up demands for a £500 Olympic Games bonus for its 21,000 bus industry members, although the payment could ultimately extend to around 29,000 staff.

It is understood that bus operators have calculated the union's demands as equating to a payment of around £21m – more than double the £8.3m on the table from the Olympic Delivery Authority – and is considerably higher than the widely publicised number of £14m.

Once extras such as employee tax and national insurance contributions are added in, bus operators claim, the £500 payment rises to a gross payment of up to £700.

Unite's regional secretary Peter Kavanagh said: "The overall figure is not the primary issue. It is not a huge sum of money compared with the tens of millions of pounds that TfL will be earning in extra bus revenues during the games."

It is also understood that bus operators have sounded out TfL about a contribution towards an Olympic bonus, but TfL has made clear that the ODA fund will be the limit of any taxpayer-backed contribution.

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