At a glance
- TfL workers have delivered a letter to Downing Street after the government refused to meet City Hall over visa rule changes that could force dozens of staff to leave the UK.
- Unions say around 60 to 300 TfL staff are at risk due to higher salary thresholds and some transport roles being removed from the “skilled worker” list.
- Mayor Sadiq Khan and union leaders have condemned the move, calling it “inhumane” and urging ministers to grant exemptions for staff who have built their lives in Britain.
Transport for London (TfL) workers have delivered a letter to Downing Street after the government rejected a request from City Hall to discuss visa rule changes that could force dozens of staff to leave the country.
Recent changes to immigration rules have raised the skills threshold for foreign workers, removed some transport jobs from the “skilled workers” list and increased the salary requirements for visa sponsorship.
The RMT union is calling for urgent transitional protections for all 63 affected TfL employees, describing them as “a special category of workers.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement that he was “deeply disappointed by the situation.” The Home Office has been approached for comment.
Speaking outside Downing Street, RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “These are workers who are on permanent contracts of employment, who were given every expectation they have the right to remain here in Britain.
“They've started to build families here and we think this is just wrong. We're not here to argue about the broader policy, we're here to say ‘this just ain't cricket’.
“These are good people, they're in a special case and what we're calling for is an exemption — we want them to pause and we want them to reconsider so these people can carry on living here in the lives that they've chosen.”
One affected worker, Avi Kherg, told the BBC’s Politics London programme it was “a shock” when he realised the new rules meant he might have to return to India.
After arriving in the UK on a student visa three years ago, he later secured a station staff role that allowed him to apply for a skilled worker visa and stay for five years.
“I felt like we were being treated as garbage, trash, just to use us for those years and throw us away,” he said. “We followed every single rule, we paid every fee no matter how extortionate it felt.
“We sold all of our belongings back home. We have got no ties left. We call this country home… it felt inhumane.”
TfL said 61 staff visas are due to expire within the next 12 weeks, though the total number affected could be higher as workers are not required to disclose their visa status.
The TSSA union has suggested the changes could impact up to 300 TfL employees.
Last month, Deputy Mayor for Transport Seb Dance wrote to the government calling for a pause to the rule changes, warning that many TfL workers were at “imminent risk of losing their employment and their right to remain” — a move that could have “operational consequences” for the network.
On 30 October, Minister for Migration and Citizenship Mike Tapp responded that he “cannot commit to a meeting on this subject.”
In his letter, Mr Tapp wrote: “Those coming to the UK as students or on youth mobility schemes should be made aware that this does not guarantee them future employment or extensions to their immigration permission.”
A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan said the mayor was “deeply disappointed by the situation that TfL workers have been left in.”
“These are transport workers who have given dedicated service supporting Londoners during the pandemic at huge personal risk and keep our capital city moving,” they said. “The mayor thinks it is wrong that visa changes are impacting current staff in this way, putting them at imminent risk of losing both their livelihoods and their right to remain in the UK.”
Earlier this year, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) issued similar warnings, saying the rule changes could affect more than 1,000 prison staff, mainly from African countries, who were sponsored under skilled worker visas.
POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst described the change as “scandalous” and said it had been made in haste because the government was “pandering to Reform.”
“We have written to ministers asking them to reverse this decision and give prison officers an exemption because we need the staff they are forcing out of the country, but they won’t give it to us,” he said.
