“However, with the majority of Londoners struggling with above-inflation fare rises and escalating rents during recent years, we can’t pay extra at the top by paying less at the bottom.”
Sir Peter Hendy, London’s transport chief, has had his salary of £331,362 frozen for a sixth year running, but received a £145,301 bonus, taking the total to £476,663.
However, TfL suggested that he could earn four times his salary if he went to work in the private sector. “The base pay and the total remuneration of the commissioner and the chief officers remains significantly lower than that paid in comparable organisations which TfL competes with for high-quality staff,” it said.
Sir Peter has approved unfunded pensions benefits — to which the employee makes no contribution — for 12 out of 21 senior TfL managers, including directors and chief officers.
TfL also faces questions about staff employed through personal service companies to allow them to be paid off the payroll, potentially with tax advantages. Out of a workforce of 27,000, TfL pays more than 1,400 temporary employees — mostly engineers and IT experts — in this way.
TfL said it was delivering one of the world’s largest programmes of capital investment, building Crossrail, modernising Tube services and improving the road network. Capital investment during 2014/15 was £3.58 billion, including £1.52 billion on Crossrail.
A spokesman said: “To deliver against this enormous agenda, we need highly skilled, specialist and experienced staff and compete with the private sector for the best professional staff across a range of disciplines, including world-leading engineers and project managers.”
