London Underground staff vented their anger and incredulity today after being told that they will not be paid if they failed to turn up for work last Monday when the capital was snowbound.

The bus network in London was suspended and Tubes were disrupted because of the extreme weather, which prompted millions of workers — an estimated one in five — to stay at home across Britain.

Transport for London's tough line on staff absence emerged today when the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) complained that its 4,000 union members — mainly ticket office and platform staff — had been told they must claim the day as unpaid leave or take it out of their holiday if they failed to make it to work. Staff who did not arrive would be paid only if they had worked from home.

Other unions, including the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and ASLEF, the drivers' union, described the decision as astonishing and promised to defend their members.

"How a signaller who might live in a snowbound town outside the capital can be expected to do some meaningful work from home is beyond me," said Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT.

"People were being advised not to travel, and the fact that a large number of Tube workers got in to work speaks volumes for their commitment, but that is no reason to discriminate against those who could not.

"Losing a day’s pay is no laughing matter for the victims, and we will be looking very closely at every case, but the most sensible thing TfL can do is accept that it has made a mistake and reverse it."

The ruling appears to affect all London Underground staff, including drivers, although ASLEF said this morning that it had not been notified formally that this was the case. It promised to stand up for its members' rights.

Keith Norman, the general secretary of ASLEF, said that TfL was being senselessly provocative, adding: "Our members who could get in, got in. I am sure most Londoners will agree that being penalised for failing to arrive at work last week would be both vindictive and mean.

"This was a day when TfL itself had shut the bus service and the whole network was disrupted. If TfL presses ahead with this threat, the union will defend its members vigorously."

TSSA union representatives were meeting this morning and will hold talks with managers later. Manuel Cortes, the assistant general secretary of the TSSA, accused Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, of hypocrisy.

"He cancels all the buses and most of the Tube and urges Londoners not to risk trying to get to work in the worst snowstorm for a generation. So our members could not get in because Boris had effectively halted all public transport because the main line trains weren’t running either," Mr Cortes said.

"Yet here he is wanting to penalise them because of his own actions. It is unfair and he should tell Transport for London to stop being so mean to its loyal staff."

A spokesman for Transport for London said that the company had a strict policy that anyone who could get into work should do so. Anyone not able to provide a good reason for why they were not at work would be expected to take annual or unpaid leave for that day

"The vast majority, 95 per cent, of our staff came to work on Monday," said the spokesman. "We are hugely grateful to them for enabling us to run 80 per cent of Tube lines. There was disruption, but it was working."

He added however that TfL calculated fewer than 100 of its staff had failed to make it to work and that those would be assessed on a case-by-case basis to see whether pay should be docked.

"It is certainly not true to say that it's a blanket thing that if you didn't come to work you won't get paid. As it stands, very few of our staff will be affected," he said.

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