London Underground drivers are to stage a 24-hour strike after voting in favour of industrial action in a dispute over working conditions.
Members of Aslef will walk out on October 5, threatening huge disruption for passengers and visitors to the capital.
The drivers voted by almost 9-1 to strike and a bigger margin for other forms of industrial action.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on London Underground, said LU had failed to deliver on commitments made to improve work-life balance as part of the 2015 pay settlement.
He said: “As part of the settlement of the dispute over the introduction of Night Tube, LU agreed to introduce a mechanism to allow drivers to reduce the number of shifts they work, on a pro-rata basis, and ‘new ways of working’ to reduce the percentage of weekend shifts worked by July this year.
“They have repeatedly refused to make any detailed proposals to do so. For more than 18 months management have prevaricated, stalled and delayed.
“Deadlines have repeatedly been missed and promises broken while our detailed proposals to resolve these issues have been ignored.
(Lauren Hurley/PA)“Our members’ patience has finally been exhausted and our executive committee has announced strike action.
“As always, we are ready to meet at any time to try to find a solution, but it is long past time that LU management started to act to resolve this long-running dispute.”
Nigel Holness, LU’s director of network operations, said: “We are committed to ensuring that our employees are able to maintain a good balance between their work and personal lives, and we have been working closely with the unions to explore new ways to achieve this.
“I encourage Aslef to continue working with us constructively rather than moving towards unnecessary strike action.”