Tube strikes: Dates for the July London Underground walkouts

The strikes running over four consecutive days will affect different sections of the Tube network

Planned strikes next week by London Underground drivers have now been suspended.

Members of Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union were due to walk out in a long-running dispute over pay, pensions and conditions.

But on Friday the unions and Transpot for London announced an eleventh-hour deal that means industrial action is no longer going ahead.

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the Underground, said: “After a week of intense negotiations, we have made real progress in making sure our members’ working conditions and pensions are protected from the impact of the Tory government cuts to Transport for London funding.

“There will be no changes to pension benefits before the next general election and any future changes to working conditions and agreements will only be made by negotiation.”

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said: “Despite the onerous funding deal conditions imposed by the Government we have managed to avoid industrial action.

“Negotiation is always the best way forward and this shows what we can achieve by working with trade unions.”

Read on for everything you need to know about the dispute and how it would have affected passengers:

The RMT has said London Underground workers will walkout on the following days:

The union said there will be no strike on Monday July 24.

More than 10,000 workers are eligible to strike but the strikes will affect different sections of the Tube network and grades of workers on different days.

It is not yet clear which lines will be affected on different days.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the action would “shut down the tube” and “show just how important these workers were”.

He said: “Plans by Transport for London (TfL) to cut 600 jobs and attack our members’ pensions are simply unacceptable.

“We are aware that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has had the TfL budget cut. However, he needs to align himself with our union and his London Underground staff in pushing back against the Tory Government, exposing their damaging agenda to a key part of London transport infrastructure.”

Aslef’s full-time organiser on London Underground has said the union has joined the Tube strikes announced by the RMT because changes would make it “impossible” for drivers to “organise their lives outside work”.

Finn Brennan said: “We take action only when needed. Unfortunately, the last few weeks have shown that London Underground management are determined to try to push through detrimental changes – despite trade union opposition – if they think they can get away with it.

“They have already announced that they intend to start training managers in August on a new attendance procedure, and will implement it from January, ignoring the current agreed procedure.

“This new procedure would mean no right to representation or appeal at stage one of the disciplinary process, and the length of all warnings would be doubled from 26 to 52 weeks.

“All sickness longer than one week would be regarded as ‘long term’ meaning that a manager can send a driver to redeployment without any further meeting. After just six weeks in deployment a driver can be, as they put it, ‘terminated’.

“Management also want to force through their plans for what they call ‘trains modernisation’. They want unrestricted remote booking on and off, driving shifts up to 10 hours long, ‘flexible cover’ weeks in every roster, and fixed links to be scrapped.

“That would make it impossible for Tube train drivers to organise their lives outside work or to have an effective change-over system.

“Their aim is an entirely flexible workforce with all existing agreements replaced – allowing them to cut hundreds more jobs and forcing those of us who remain to work harder for longer. To protect our pensions, working conditions, and agreements, our members are ready to act.”

Transport for London had previously insisted there were no current proposals to change its pension arrangements, although it is exploring a range of proposals to ensure no employee will lose their job or be asked to work extra hours.

But on Friday the parties agreed there would be no pension changes before the next general election.

Glynn Barton, chief operating officer at TfL, said: “This is good news for London and we will continue to work closely with our trade unions to discuss the issues and seek a resolution.”

The RMT has said that 20,000 rail workers across the UK are also to strike in July.