Victoria Line tube workers will go on strike for 24 hours on 5 October.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) has announced today (25 September) that workers on London Underground’s Victoria Line are to hold a 24-hour strike in October.

RMT union members will go on strike from 9.30pm on 5 October in a dispute over new rosters and increased workloads. The union voted overwhelmingly for the strike action.

The main disagreement between management and Tube staff is the sudden enforcement of more return journeys to be undertaken per day.

According to the RMT, an agreement to reduce the number of return journeys has been in place since 2003 due to the lack of air cooling in the tunnels. Upon the opening of the new Brixton Depot, the agreement had been rescinded with management arguing that the air cooling system in place was now adequate.

Workers on the Victoria Line have now been instructed to perform five rostered return journeys on weekdays.

The union members also plan to refuse to drive more than four round trips on the Victoria Line from one minute past midnight on Wednesday 30 September.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said: “The underhand attempt to extract an extra 20% from the working day out of our members has provoked this action on the Victoria Line and we would urge the management side to re-open serious negotiations to resolve this issue.”