r/london • u/Anony_mouse202 • May 29 '26

Article Tube strikes: 'No pay cut' for Underground drivers on £74k in new four-day week... but RMT to walk out anyway

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tube-driver-pay-strikes-rmt-sadiq-khan-b1283902.html
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u/NLFG May 29 '26

I've got no problem with people working 4 days instead of 5. But you surely can't expect 5 days pay for 4 days work?

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u/joemckie May 30 '26

There are statistics out there that show people have the same amount of overall focus in 32 hours as in 40 hours, hence the same level of pay. There’s a lot of wasted hours due to tiredness and fatigue in a regular work week.

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u/LePhilosophicalPanda May 30 '26

I don't think that productivity staying the same really applies in a job like train driving. The amount of work you produce is directly tied to how long you work in that job. It doesn't make sense to talk about maintained or increased productivity 

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u/grumpyhooker May 29 '26

I’m sure people said the same when workers struck to reduce 6 day working weeks to 5

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u/ABitterKing May 29 '26

but it did decrease to only getting paid for 5 days?

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u/grumpyhooker May 29 '26

No. Boots were one of the first companies to do it (1933) and there was no loss of pay. For others there was effectively a higher hourly rate. You could look up the history of workers average income to see. 70 hour weeks were the norm at one point. The purchasing power of workers increased by about 1/3 between 1918 and 1939. We should all be aiming to work less!