TfL Ref: FOI-1933-1617

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 8 January 2017 asking for information about costs of industrial action.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

A strike is what is normally referred to as a withdrawal of labour from an organised group of employees in protest to the organisation’s action or proposed course of action in a particular matter. The impact of any strike action taken against the organisation varies and is dependent on the nature of the dispute, the number of unions involved and where the strike has been called. Therefore the impact of the strikes vary from affecting the whole tube network to localised action affecting only part of the network.

We encourage unions to engage in discussions to resolve any disputes that may result in industrial action. When it has not been possible to prevent industrial action, we roll out well prepared operational plans to ensure that services operate safely at all times under busier than normal conditions. We deploy additional staff (including managers and revenue control staff) to assist local staff and provide advice to customers. We issue communications to inform customers that services will be busier than usual. Extra bus and river services are operated to help people get around, and we continue to update the TfL website as well as our other social media outlets which we encourage our customers to check frequently to see how their journeys could be affected.

Please note that we do not hold financial information for all instances of strike action. We only ordinarily produce costs for network wide strikes in which there is a significant impact to services. Therefore we are providing information on this basis and you will find this attached. Please note that these figures include expenditure on running extra services to help customers around during periods of industrial action but do not include the wider economic impact of strikes to London as a city.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Lee Hill

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London