The Tories today claimed that Sadiq Khan’s pledge to halve Transport for London’s £383 million bill for agency workers and consultants would mean 1,500 job losses.
Zac Goldsmith warned this could include more than 500 engineers and technical staff responsible for keeping the transport network moving.
TfL has said its use of agency workers is “vital” to its multi-billion-pound investment programme and reflects the “drastic” shortage of skilled specialists. Mr Khan wants to halve the agency worker bill to help fund his four-year fares freeze plan.
The Tube unions, which have donated more than £100,000 to his mayoral campaign, are against some agency staff but have conceded the contracts save money for TfL.
It came as Mr Goldsmith pledged to break the unions’ stranglehold on public transport and backed plans restricting strike powers. “It’s not right a minority can hold a city to ransom,” he said.
He has already promised to scrap a TfL perk that gives family members of staff unlimited free travel in the capital — using the money to hire 500 extra police.
“I’ll protect London’s transport budget and the jobs in areas like engineering that are vital to keeping London moving and keeping commuters safe,” he said.
“Sadiq Khan’s plan to axe £1.9 billion from the transport budget puts jobs on the line and will see London grind to a halt. He will axe jobs rather than union travel perks because he’s in the pocket of his union baron donors.”
A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “TfL is good but flabby. It’s crystal clear from this that Zac Goldsmith just isn’t strong enough to take the difficult decisions necessary to make TfL more efficient”.
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