Cycling instructors consider strike action as real-terms pay cuts and poor working conditions spark mass exodus

As industrial disputes continue to dominate the headlines in the early days of 2023 – with rail workers, bus drivers, nurses, National Highways workers, teachers, and ambulance staff all set for further walkouts in January – cycling instructors in London have become the latest group to consider strike action due to concerns over pay and working conditions amid the current cost of living crisis.

In October 2021, dozens of instructors cycled from Trafalgar Square to City Hall as part of a protest ride organised by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) to highlight Transport for London’s decision to slash the budget for cycle training in schools.

This week, the city’s cycling instructors say they are considering possible strike action due to 12 years of real-terms pay cuts and the impact of “unfair” cancellation polices, which they claim has led to a mass exodus of instructors since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The IWGB has told road.cc that, since lowdown measures brought an abrupt halt to cycle training sessions in 2020, the number of instructors has fallen dramatically, with only around 150 remaining in London.

This sudden fall in the number of cycling instructors in London has, the union says, ensured that they are unable to deliver on the government’s promise, set out in the Gear Change document published by the Department for Transport in July 2020, that every person in England in need of cycle training will have access to it.

> London cycling instructors protest over slashed training budget 

The IWGB also says that the remaining workers have been subject to a pay freeze for over a decade, resulting in a substantial loss of pay in real terms, and that the lack of protection against short-notice cancellations has exacerbated instructors’ concerns over falling income.

According to the IWGB’s Cycling Instructors’ Branch, “the balance of their employment situation has become too precarious, and it is no longer sustainable, viable, or fair for the current employment arrangements to persist.”

“I’m sure we’re not the only ones, but since Covid we were basically told overnight we couldn’t work,” the branch’s chair Suami Rocha told MyLondon this week.

“We are 90 percent funded by Transport for London (TfL), so that meant multiple times over the past two years we were told TfL doesn’t have any money, so that meant we’d have no money for cycle training.

“As cycling instructors, we haven’t got a pay rise technically in around 12 years. Many people like myself had to find a part-time job or left the industry entirely.

“In a Gear Change document introduced by the government through the Department for Transport and Mayor of London, they said they want every child and adult to have access to cycle training. Yet, we look around at the instructors here and see that we don’t have the staff to deliver this promise currently.”

In July, Rocha accused Transport for London of “breaking promises” after it quietly suspended funding for cycle training amidst the body’s financial crisis and reliance on short-term government bailouts at the time.

> Transport for London accused of “breaking promises” after funding for cycle training cut 

The Westminster-based cycle instructor is now calling on TfL – which, after agreeing a new funding settlement with the government until 2024 in September, currently allocates £2.7 million to the city’s borough councils for cycle training provision – to “take more care” when working with these local authorities to ensure that instructors receive higher pay and to end the precarious, self-employed nature of their contracts.

“If a school cancels a session where I’m teaching children for a week, if they cancel, I’ve lost a quarter of my monthly income like that,” he says.

“People got involved in becoming cycling instructors because people loved it. People are passionate about their roles, but it feels that every two years you’ll have to retrain new instructors.

“There is no stability in this job, no pay increase – people start off passionately wanting to help but then quickly they realise it’s an unsustainable job for their lives.”

Along with a pay increase, the IWGB’s demands include protection for instructors against short-notice cancellations (guaranteeing them 100 percent pay for assigned work cancelled within two weeks of the start date and 50 percent pay for assigned work cancelled within 4 weeks) and paid time for instructors to complete essential administrative tasks.

“Ultimately, our members have to ballot for strike action and through the course of this year, we will see if we will take London-wide industrial action for cycling instructors,” Rocha says.

“We want councils, when they are renewing contracts and having discussions, to think about cycling instructors and to safeguard conditions so they don’t get any worse. They are the ones holding the money from TfL and they need to think about us.”

In response to the IWGB’s campaign, a TfL spokesperson said: “Restarting cycling training following the conclusion of the funding deal negotiations with the government was a priority for the Mayor and for us as it is essential that cycling in the capital is as safe and easy as possible, and training plays a key role in giving people the confidence to cycle safely.

“Cycle training schemes are delivered by boroughs and cycle trainers work on behalf of the councils. We will continue to work with the Mayor and with the boroughs to deliver projects that make our city greener, safer and better for everyone.”