New offer in Tube dispute

Fresh peace talks are taking place today between London Underground and the rail unions in an effort to avert two 48-hour strikes.

The first begins at noon next Tuesday - 5 March - and is deliberately designed to cause maximum disruption over three days.

The talks will centre on a new deal for the Tube's 3,000 train drivers. Although LU refused to reveal details, the offer amounts to an extra 3.4 per cent and could include possible job-sharing and changes to drivers' shift arrangements. LU is also promising a "family-friendly" deal where shift arrangements suit the employee's life at home.

The dispute is over pay parity. The drivers of passenger trains, who earn £29,000 a year, are claiming an extra £1,600 to bring them closer to the engineering train operators on a higher rate. LU says the claim amounts to an extra 5.7 per cent on top of the four per cent paid to all employees, including drivers, last year. LU says it cannot afford it.

LU has proposed two increments of 1.7 per cent, the first to be paid from April on a "no strings" basis with the second 1.7 per cent from October - but that will be conditional on a productivity deal.

LU says if the deal can be made self-financing it can afford to improve the pay offer. Slight changes to early morning and late evening shifts will give LU greater flexibility on the number of trains available and cut down on the wage bill. The second strike is due to begin at noon on Tuesday 26 March. Commuters face travel chaos and London businesses will lose hundreds of millions of pounds output because of staff arriving late or not at all.

? Leaders of the RMT union meet today to discuss the continuing dispute with South West Trains, which operates local and long distance routes into mainline Waterloo station. The union "suspended" the strike action after staging three 48-hour stoppages over pay parity between train guards and station staff and higher paid drivers.

SWT says it is willing to talk about this year's pay round as a way forward. The union says negotiations over last year's settlement, at the centre of the dispute, are not yet over.