Huge pay packets push up cost of Jubilee Line

BIZARRE CUSTOMS and huge pay packets are leading to escalating costs on the Jubilee Tube line extension, which is expected to face yet another major delay.

Well-placed sources who have spoken to The Independent on Sunday believe there is no question of Europe's biggest construction project being completed by its March 1999 deadline, and that the full service will not be operational until six months later.

Such a completion date would mean that management would be battling to finish the project with just 12 weeks left to New Year's Eve and the grand opening of the Millennium Dome, which the line is supposed to link with central London.

It is also reliably understood that the costs will overrun by considerably more than the pounds 700m already accounted for, largely because of design faults and mounting wage costs.

Management yesterday refused to guarantee either that the company would meet the deadline or that it would come in on the present budget.

Among the highest earners are electricians who have been earning more than pounds 70,000 a year through unprecedented premium rates and the kind of practices banished from Fleet Street more than a decade ago.

Perhaps the most unusual "add-on" is earned by electricians at one company who are paid pounds 18 extra a day for travelling from Northampton, even though none of them live there.

An agreement states that they should be paid for getting from the company's nearest depot to the Jubilee Line. Most firms took the precaution of setting up offices near the site.

Other electricians are paid pounds 11 a day "washing-up time" and an extra pounds 7.50 for giving up their afternoon tea break.

If electricians work on Saturdays and Sundays, they are paid from 7.30am to 4pm, even though they finish work at 1pm. In effect, they are paid an extra pounds 102 for doing nothing.

Employees' representatives also believe that the project, already dogged by appalling labour relations, could face unrest over redundancies.

As the line nears completion, employees are likely to seek severance payments which have not been written in to current budgets. Failure to promise substantial pay-offs could lead to further industrial action, it is predicted.

If the completion of the project is postponed as expected from March to September, it would be the third time it has been delayed.

The company, JLE, insists it is trying to meet the deadline, but insiders believe management will only be able to run a shuttle service, possibly from Stratford in the East End to North Greenwich near the Dome. The abilities of senior management at JLE, which was set up by London Underground, have come under severe criticism, culminating in the recent appointment of the US company Bechtel to undertake a review of the work in progress. The firm has been asked to decide whether the project is likely to meet its deadlines.

Ministers have asked to be kept in daily touch with progress, and uncertainty about the completion date has led to the formation of an "Armageddon" committee to draw up contingency plans if the Tube line is not finished by 1 January, 2000.

Three weeks ago, a cross-party Commons select committee with special responsibility for the millennium celebrations expressed its "worries" that London Underground's assurance of a spring opening was "optimistic".

One senior source said: "When the project started, management refused to talk to unions and they have ended up in a mess. If there were a thousand committed Christians working on the line, there would still be problems."

Asked about the pay rates of craftsmen on the site, Frank Westerman, the official responsible for the Jubilee Line at the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, said that much of the speculation about wage rates was "way over the top". But he added: "Management should have made sure that there was an agreement in place to ensure that their skills were rewarded. Instead, they let market forces decide."

It is understood that the company rejected an offer by the union to extend a special deal covering "big sites", such as the construction of power stations and oil refineries to the Jubilee Line. The agreement commits companies and unions to specified premium wage rates and prohibits industrial action.

Hugh Doherty, project director, said it was management's intention to meet the deadline next spring, but there were significant obstacles. Electronic control systems were presenting difficulties and three or four stations were still under construction. He conceded that the overall cost had already risen from pounds 2.1bn to pounds 2.8bn and the final figure was "unknown" because of financial claims from companies.

Mr Doherty said he was not aware that unions had offered an agreement which placed tight controls on wages and industrial action. Such a deal, however, would not constitute a "panacea".

He "disagreed very strongly" with an allegation that sub-contracted front-line managers were relaxed about the deadlines in order to prolong their period of employment. "The vast majority of people on the project work very hard and very long hours, trying to deliver it on time."