Disgusted at the amount of people jealous of tube drivers pay

[Itsawd]

They do a job dealing with the public, unsociable hours and god knows what when they get a jumper. We should congratulate them on doing well, not look at them with green eyes.

Its a free market so if anyone wants a job as one they are welcome to apply!

I work somewhere where actively promoted from within means idiots end up making important decisions. Long service at a company does not equate to skill a a particular (usually more senior) role. Whilst you get the odd gem, many make me incredibly nervous.

YABU.

I often have to work 50 hours a week- paid for 37.5. By the time I finish- I dont even earn NMW. I have 20 days holiday per annum.

Tube drivers can go fuck themselves

Listen to this:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJKvYBNgo8

For the record station staff learn about track, signals, basics of how the trains work. They learn about how the railway works from the ground up. How to deal with the shifts. How to deal with emergencies. Not just standing around being rude.

To those who moan about the closed shop, why not join as station staff and work your way up. Like the majority of the rest of us had to

Because there doesn't seem to be an obvious need for it to be this way, bar the wish to keep it closed. And I would be cautious making arguments where you haven't seen/don't have access to the evidence that supports them. It does make it look like you're parroting stuff.

I agree that it's helpful to understand how the whole operation works if you're a manager and, maybe to a lessor degree a driver. But I don't think it follows that you need to only promote internally.

I'm not against strike action and appreciate the role unions have. But I think exercising that right needs to be a balance and I think that the drivers and station workers have got it wrong here. If what I've read is true.

Glad to hear the standing around being rude is also a critical limb of the training though The mole

I thought it was a prerequisite, here !

A few months back, as I was being filed slowly into an overcrowded morning that could not cope with sheer numbers I remember looking into the staffed office and seeing a LU worker sitting on their ass reading the morning paper. That privilege has been striked for in the past.

And LU staff wonder why they don't get more sympathy

Train drivers are the 28th best paid profession apparently. They are better paid than surveyors, engineers, vets, dentists, university lecturers and officers on ships.

I can never understand why London bus drivers are so poorly paid in comparison to Tube drivers yet the skills required to drive a bus around London's congested streets are considerable.

Why don't we work as station staff and work our way up to tube driver?

Until this thread I didn't even know that is how you became a tube driver. And yes I would happily apply for and do the job. Although I also support strong unions.

how about we talk about over paid people how about MPs they need fuck all qualifactions they have a huge amount of leave and a lot of them do fuck all other than appear on TV and shout a bit about some issues (most deligate the actual work to others and claim their wages from the state )

Oh and they all awarded themselves a big fat juice 10% pay raise....... but no one seems to be up in arms about that oh no we are so totally divided to the rush to the bottem with shit pay and condistions for everyone but the ones of the top (that are also mostly closed shop espically in law where its mostly whom you know rather than what you know that gets you the good jobs)

longfingers: "In what way does standing around talking, doing nothing, and ignoring customers at ticket barriers (i.e. typical station work) qualify someone to sit around doing nothing, occasionally rudely spouting insults at people who are squashed against the doors for having the temerity to be taking the Tube in the first place (i.e. typical driver work)?"

Lol, brilliant! I cannot wait for the day we have driverless trains. All this strike action is just moving London ever closer to that day.

Worridmum, a lot of your post is, I'm afraid, untrue.

(Having worked for senior government minister and had dealings with several MPs for a large chunk of my career I'm probably slightly better qualified to speak about it. ;))

Train drivers also get paid more on average than both barristers and solicitors, worridmum.

Train drivers are one of the top paid professions. They get paid more than the vast majority of other people.

Tell that to my bank.

but worridmum MPS are elected. That means we choose who fills that role. so we have it in our gift to choose those who will work for and prove to be good value for money for those salaries. If we make a bad choice we only have ourselves to blame.

We have no say over those employed by London Underground.

Look, just because you don't "need academic qualifications" to be a tube driver, doesn't mean anyone could do it.

Firstly, the number of people who apply to be train drivers and actually make it through all the tests, interviews, reaction tests etc is very, very low. So you may not need a degree, but these drivers are certainly far from daft. They need to be very sharp and switched on.

Secondly, I bet many new drivers over the last 5-10 years probably have degrees too.

Thirdly, a degree doesn't really even prove academic superiority these days anyway, since pretty much 50% of people have one. Many of whom aren't "academic" or even particularly bright in the slightest, and yet still go on to do lots of jobs, including nursing/teaching/and many other perfectly respectable jobs. Some very well, some terribly, as in all jobs.

Fourthly, tube drivers need to live in central London. So they need paid a decent wage to be able to do this.

Boneyback I'll say good luck to them, I have no problem with teachers trying to protect their pay and conditions. I don't much like hearing them whinge about their current deal, but I do agree it's not right for them to have their terms eroded. Ditto Tube drivers, but they are happy with their current T&Cs, they just don't want them reduced. Fair enough.

And Sharon I'm not "hating on nurses" , I just knew this thread would descend into a comparison with nurses with claims they earn nowt. As it does every time, it's so bloody predictable.

DeeCrepid
That is one of the points I was trying to make earlier.
My H drives any one of 38 different routes which he has to hold in his head. He has a 2 minute window of timing to be at each stop (managers with clipboards often out observing). This is during roadworks/public festivals/unexpected incidents on bus. He has to deal with the public in all its glory. Roads are closed / rerouted (all the ruddy time in Edinburgh!).
It is easily as difficult as tube driving.
Yet the pay is less than half.
Go figure.

Thank you. Nobody is denying we have good terms and conditions. We are just saying that we don't want them made substantially worse. Once they've been allowed to break our agreement once, they will continue to do it.
Let's focus on making it better for others. Not dragging us down.

Firstly, the number of people who apply to be train drivers and actually make it through all the tests, interviews, reaction tests etc is very, very low

Well maybe if people from a wider variety of backgrounds were able to even apply, then that wouldn't be the case.

Dopey, it's because the bus unions are crap.

Why do train drivers need to be paid more than 90% of the population?

If people in the top 10% of earners are not the rich, who is?

TGWU - crap?
Shurely shome mishtake!

So do bus drivers.

For half the pay.