London bus drivers to strike in run-up to Christmas

Unite said it had invited Abellio to pay talks in September but had no response, and accused the company of paying among the lowest rates for bus drivers in London, causing a severe “retention crisis”.

It also claimed the company was only managing to maintain its schedules due to a heavy reliance on overtime, making its operations unsustainable.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Abellio is a vastly wealthy multinational company that could and should be paying its workers a fair pay increase.

“With workers struggling to cope with rampant inflation, Abellio’s failure to even enter into meaningful pay talks is cold-hearted and callous.”

It comes as much of the capital came to a grinding halt during the sixth Tube strike of the year, leading to the closure of the most Underground lines.