Tube drivers in strike vote over Christmas pay

London Underground (LU) drivers are to vote on industrial action in a row over Boxing Day pay, it has been revealed. Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said LU had insisted that 26 December was a “normal working day”, but the union said its members should receive additional pay. Terry Wilkinson, a member of Aslef’s executive committee, said: “To claim that Boxing Day is ‘an ordinary working day’ is an almost unbelievable denial of an obvious fact. They are living on another planet if they think Aslef members will accept this piece of fiction.” He added that this row would have repercussions for all bank holidays. “This is not something we can accept. It used to be almost guaranteed that if you worked one bank holiday, you would not work the next. But the increase in service levels has meant this is now no longer possible.” According to Wilkinson, LU management had insisted that drivers not expected to work on Boxing Day are those on annual leave or a rest day.