Tube strikers branded 'selfish' for hindering care workers visiting London's old and disabled

Care workers in London desperately trying to make home care visits to the elderly and disabled on Tuesday (1 March) were left struggling to make it onto packed buses, as Tube strikes hit the capital's entire underground network.

Care workers employed at London-based home care firm Penrose Care, had got up extra early to make their home care visits on time but were thwarted by queues of commuters at bus stops and taxi ranks. The “immense traffic” caused some to arrive late to the homes of vulnerable people.

Home care boss calls tube workers’ strike ‘highly immoral’

The disruption to the capital’s underground system, came after the RMT ordered its 10,000 workers not to work on 1 March and 3 March following Transport for London’s (TfL) plans to get rid of up to 600 tube station posts.

Strike action by The Rail and Martime Transport union (RMT) has been attacked by the managing director of Penrose Care, Robert Stephenson Padron who described tube workers’ actions as “highly immoral and selfish”.

“I had a few workers late”, Robert Stephenson-Padron told homecare.co.uk.

“Our aim is always to be 10 minutes early. Some of the heroes of the pandemic are losing some of their free time, getting up extra early for these strikes.

“Workers in critical infrastructure should not strike. This kind of selfishness has a negative impact on society.

“If care workers were to strike like this someone could die.

“There could be other home care providers affected badly by this."

In a tweet earlier today, Mr Stephenson-Padron posted (@penrosecare) his outrage about the strikes saying: ‘Extremely infuriated by the @TfL strikes today which makes it difficult for community health and social care staff to get to the vulnerable of London. Critical infrastructure workers striking is highly immoral and selfish.’

Mr Padron said his staff had left for work “extra early” and all clients were notified beforehand about the strikes.

More than 1.2 billion passengers use the tube every year. Long queues of people could be seen waiting for buses and taxis in London as Tube services were largely suspended across the capital.

A further strike is planned by the RMT for Thursday, 3 March.

RMT: 'Left tube workers with no choice'

The RMT has said that the government announced the Mayor of London had agreed by 31 March that he would submit proposals to the government to cut tube workers’ pensions. The RMT has said the Mayor wants to scrap the final salary pension scheme of its workers in a bid to drive down costs.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Sadiq Khan should be standing up to Tory ministers who want to needlessly attack jobs, pensions and conditions of key transport workers. It is this political failure that has left tube workers with no choice but to strike this week.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “It’s very disappointing this RMT strike has gone ahead. It is causing very serious disruption to Londoners and businesses that are trying to recover after two devastating years.

“TfL have tried to mitigate the impact of the RMT strikes but there is currently no service across the Tube network so we are asking Londoners to check before they make their journey, consider whether they are able to work from home and use alternative modes of transport where possible.

"This action is causing misery for Londoners and businesses alike and damaging TfL at the worst possible time."

Urging the RMT to “come to the table” and work with TfL, he added that the strike had gone ahead despite there being “no job losses, and no changes to pensions or conditions”.

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