In light of the cost of living crisis, the Mayor of London,
, has announced that he has asked
Transport for London (TfL) to extend free travel on the capital’s
public transport for the lowest paid contract workers.
In order to do everything he can to support the lowest paid
Londoners as the cost of living spirals, Sadiq has asked TfL to
extend the benefit of free travel on TfL’s public transport
network to transport workers on the lowest salaries.
This will mean than that free travel will be introduced for
around 5,000 transport workers, who were not previously eligible
for free travel. Since first being elected Mayor, Sadiq has made
sure all who work in TfL, including contractors, are paid the
London Living Wage. This new ground-breaking announcement will
include cleaning, catering and security staff, and the cost will
be covered by City Hall.
Free travel on TfL services is already given to staff employed
directly by TfL, and Oyster cards are also issued to bus drivers
and operators of other TfL services as part of their benefit
package. The benefit of free travel on TfL’s network to the
lowest paid workers, who aren’t employed by TfL, will be
introduced for eligible staff of suppliers to TfL by April 2023.
At a time when the cost of living is increasing, and Londoners on
the lowest incomes are being hit the hardest, the Mayor is taking
unprecedented action to ease the pressure being faced by the
lowest paid transport workers.
These workers – cleaners, catering staff, security staff –
weren’t previously able to access this benefit as they are
employed by TfL’s suppliers rather than by TfL directly, but the
Mayor has asked TfL to extend free travel to these workers in
order to support those on the lowest pay.
In addition, the Mayor has asked TfL to look into whether
sick-pay standards for the lowest paid workers could be improved
in future, and to conduct work early next year to assess TfL’s
ability to bring cleaning services in house.
The Mayor continues to do all he can to help Londoners, including
spending more than £80m this year specifically to help those
struggling with the rising cost of living. That includes more
than £50m to tackle fuel poverty through the Mayor’s Warmer Homes
programme and energy advice services, more than £20m to improve
security for private renters and house Londoners who are rough
sleeping or homeless, more than £5m to connect Londoners with
welfare advice, and £400,000 to tackle food insecurity. He
has also spent billions building affordable homes for Londoners
and invested £400m this year alone to help Londoners find more
secure and better paid work. These are just some of the policies
the mayor is working on every day to help Londoners during this
cost of living crisis.
The Mayor of London, , said: “London’s
transport workers, who did so much for us during the pandemic,
continue to play an essential and much-valued role in
keeping our city’s transport network safe and operating.
“I’m deeply concerned about the fact the spiralling cost of
living is hitting those on lower incomes the hardest. That’s why
I’m taking unprecedented action to support London’s lowest paid
transport workers by removing the cost of using public transport.
“I will continue to do everything I can to help Londoners with
spiralling costs, including providing targeted support directly
to those on lower incomes, and to prevent financial inequalities
widening further so we can continue to build a better, fairer and
more prosperous city for all Londoners.”
